EU agrees agriculture policy reforms

20 November 2008 - 10H00

EU countries on Thursday forged an agreement after marathon talks to revamp their farm support policy with increases in milk quotas and cuts in subsidies for production, European diplomats said.

The compromise deal was reached by EU farm ministers who had begun their meeting in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon.

The agreed changes expand on the major reform of the EU's controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2003, pushing European farmers further into the world of supply and demand with a smaller safety net of subsidies linked to production levels.

The ministers notably agreed to progressively lift milk quotas for farmers, in place since 1984 to limit production, before scrapping them entirely by 2015, the soources said.

There was also agreement on the thorny issue of reducing subsidies directly linked to farm production and switching the funding to projects to protect the environment or revitalise rural areas, schemes that will be co-financed by member states and common EU coffers.