EC agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel gave little comfort to the Irish sugar industry yesterday on her first official visit to Ireland, when she urged beet farmers to look at the possibility of producing the crop for bio-ethanol rather than for tables.
But, during her whirlwind visit as a guest of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), she assured Irish farmers and Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan that she had "no Cap reform package in her pocket" and she was disappointed that EU leaders had not agreed on funding.
"I was hoping to the very last minute that it might have been possible. The presidency put in some reasonable compromises ... but there was no political will to solve the problem," she said.
"I was a bit surprised that the Cap was suddenly on top of the agenda. In Brussels in 2002, all heads of state, including the UK prime minister, decided on this ceiling for agricultural expenditure for the future," she said.
She added that she thought this was a political game going on in the UK, and farmers in Ireland and elsewhere needed time to adapt to what was agreed in 2002 and amended last year.
Agriculture was the only common policy in the EU and, therefore, the budget was huge - €45 billion a year. If health was a common policy like agriculture, it also would be huge, she said.
The future of the sugar industry was top of the agenda for those hosting the commissioner, who visited a beef farm near Maynooth, met the Irish Minister for Agriculture in Moyglare Manor, addressed a national council meeting of the IFA, and attended a 50th birthday dinner for the organisation in the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin.
Her proposals for the European sugar industry were not about destroying Irish jobs or the livelihood of Irish farmers, but to defend the European interests, she said. Without them, she would be presiding over the demise of EU sugar production.
"I would recommend that Ireland and other member states consider the possibility of going into bio-ethanol. Bio-ethanol could help members to fulfil the goals the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions," she said.
She told reporters she had toured Ireland some years ago and visited many farms but had told no one she was the Danish minister for agriculture.