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I attended the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 17 and 18 March 2003, together with Lord Whitty and Mike German.On agriculture, the Council continued its consideration of Common Agricultural Policy reform, addressing questions from the Presidency on the Commission's proposals for cereals, milk and rice and for rural development. The UK argued for bringing the EU closer to world market conditions, supported the lines of the Commission proposals for reducing support and argued against the proposed extension of dairy quotas to 2015. On rural development, we argued for a redistribution of modulated funds which would be fair and forward looking, reiterated the case for flat rate modulation of direct payments and urged the Commission to look for ways of increasing the funds available for rural development programmes.The Commission updated the Council on the agriculture negotiations in the World Trade Organization, noting that a second draft of the "modalities" paper was expected later in the week and that the EU remained ready to negotiate with trading partners. There was no discussion.The Council reached a compromise on phasing out the use of the pesticide Aldicarb, permitting some specific uses in certain member states, including the UK, to continue until the end of 2007. The UK supported the proposal.Under other business, the Netherlands reported on its efforts to contain an outbreak of avian influenza. Portugal reported the discovery of certain illegal veterinary medicine residues in poultry. France reported on an initiative proposed by the President of France to improve agricultural trade relations between the EU and sub-Saharan Africa. France also drew attention to the impact of rising fuel prices on the fisheries sector.There were no substantive fisheries items on the agenda on this occasion, but in reply to a request from Denmark, the Commission said that it would shortly propose amendment of the interim cod recovery programme.

I shall officially launch the Strategic Framework for Aquaculture at the Sea Change Conference in Dunblane on 24 March.

The review has been completed and I am publishing its report today. Copies of the report are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 26789). I am delighted that the PFMR has concluded that, on the whole, SEPA is performing its duties well. But I want SEPA to do better still and I welcome the recommendations set out in this report as a means of helping it to do so.The First Minister outlined his commitment to environmental justice last year. The recommendations in the report will contribute towards delivering that objective in two ways. They will enable SEPA to improve the quality of environment protection that it provides to communities across Scotland and to respond more effectively to major environment protection challenges, such as tackling diffuse pollution and improving Scotland's performance in waste management. Just as importantly, they will ensure that SEPA becomes more responsive to the communities that it serves, by equipping it to engage more effectively with those who live and work in those communities.I have asked SEPA and my officials to complete by the end of July a plan for implementing the recommendations in the report.

I attended the one-day Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 20 February 2003, together with Lord Whitty and Mike German. There were no fisheries items on the agenda on this occasion.On agriculture, a 10-year extension of the feed additive avilamycin was agreed by qualified majority, the UK supporting the proposal.The Commission outlined its timetable and plans for GM seeds, co-existence between GM and non-GM agriculture and GM authorisations. On the last of these, the UK supported the Commission's preference for a case-by-case approach under existing GM legislation. On co-existence, the Commission plans to adopt a communication on 5 March 2003 to inform later debate.A Commission proposal for consolidating and updating the current EU rules on official food and animal feed controls was also presented. There was no substantive discussion and the Council remitted the dossier for technical discussion.The Commission reported on recent developments on agriculture in the World Trade Organization (WTO), in particular, on ministerial discussion in Tokyo which had focussed on the first draft of the "modalities" paper prepared by the Chairman of the WTO Agriculture Negotiating Group. Commissioner Fischler criticised the draft as unbalanced but stressed that the EU would continue to negotiate with trading partners on the basis of the EU proposal submitted in January 2003. The UK endorsed this line while noting that agreement on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform would be the key to development of the EU position.The Presidency gave a brief report of official level work on the CAP Reform proposals published in January. There was no discussion. A full Council discussion is planned for the March meeting.Under other business, the Italians signalled their intention to seek approval of a state aid to farmers in serious financial difficulty following the bankruptcy of certain agricultural co-operatives, and Greece reported that extreme weather conditions had caused widespread damage to its farming industry in recent days.

The Enterprise companies have a number of programmes in place to support businesses. These can include business advice, training and certain types of financial assistance.

We are fully committed to the development of emerging marine technologies. We are working in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Carbon Trust, Orkney Islands Council, Scottish Enterprise and the DTI to establish a European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. The centre, which will open during 2003, will represent a unique testing facility for marine power technology. It will allow companies to design, develop and manufacture devices, and will promote a cluster of high value technology based companies in Scotland.

The Executive's review of aquaculture regulation resulted in proposals to streamline the consenting process and reduce duplication of effort. In implementing the Strategic Framework, the Executive will be pursuing a number of regulatory lightening initiatives.

The Scottish Executive has today published an Organic Action Plan. Copies have been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 26285).The action plan sets out important new ways in which the Scottish Executive will support the sustainable development of the organic sector. It takes account of the expert views of the Organics Stakeholder Group, whose formation I announced last September.The action plan affirms our belief that Scottish organic products can grow in market penetration so that they can meet at least 70% by value of overall Scottish consumer demand for organic products which can be sourced in Scotland. It also looks forward to a doubling of the area of good quality agricultural land in organic conversion or production. To support this growth, the Organic Action Plan sets out important ways in which the Executive will support the organic sector's development. We are consulting on a package of measures including better payment rates for organic conversion, support for capital costs associated with organic conversion, and various ways in which we can offer continuing support for the environmental benefits of organic farming after the initial conversion period. On the marketing side, the action plan includes prioritisation of organic projects for grant assistance and support for the development of Scottish organic branding. We are commissioning ambitious research to help the development of the organic sector. We have accepted the challenge from the bill that the Scottish Executive should report annually on the delivery of its action plan and we will use that opportunity to make sure, year by year, that we are supporting the organic sector as effectively as possible.

The Executive has concluded that competition on the public water and sewerage networks would have to be restricted if our public health, environment protection and social objectives for the water industry were to continue to be safeguarded. Legislation to provide for this will be a matter for the next Administration in the next Parliament. The purpose of any legislation would be to protect public health and the environment by prohibiting common carriage on the public networks and ensuring that Scottish Water alone was able to add treated drinking water to and draw wastewater from the public networks. It would safeguard social objectives by prohibiting anyone other than Scottish Water from retailing water services to households on the public networks. This would mean that domestic water charges could continue to reflect customers' ability to pay by retaining the link between domestic charges and the banding and discount arrangements of the council tax system.Any legislation would also ensure that business customers on the public networks could benefit from the introduction of choice in the provision of retail services, while ensuring that they continue to pay a fair share of the costs of the networks, by introducing a licensing regime for non-domestic retail services.

We received 7,893 claims under the 2002 Suckler Cow Premium Scheme (SCPS) by the final closing date of 31 December 2002. The numbers of producers (farmers and crofters) who have been issued advance payments are: (a) in November 2002 - 1,157; (b) in December 2002 - 1,386, and (c) in January 2003 (up to and including 20 January) - 3,989. The claim validation and payment process is continuing and by 27 January a further 584 producers' advance payments were issued. Further payments due on those 777 claims remaining will be issued as soon as possible.