AGRICULTURE: COMMISSION RE-INTRODUCES PRIVATE STORAGE AID FOR BEEF.

The rules governing the granting of private storage aid were laid down following the reform of the CAP as part of Agenda 2000, in Articles 26 and 48 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the common organisation of the beef and veal market. Under the new Regulation, from 1 July 2002 onwards, private storage aid will only be available where the average Community price for carcasses of male cattle falls to or below Euro 2,291 per tonne (ie 103% of the basic price, fixed at Euro 2 224 per tonne). Private storage aid can be awarded for fresh or frozen adult carcasses in the form of whole carcasses, half carcasses, compensated quarters, forequarters or hindquarters.The aid per bull, in line with the detailed rules of Council Regulation No 1254, amounts to:- Euro 160 for calendar year 2000;- Euro 185 for calendar year 2001;- Euro 210 for calendar year 2002 and the following calendar years. For cattle, the aid per head amounts to:- Euro 122 for calendar year 2000;- Euro 136 for calendar year 2001;- Euro 150 for calendar year 2002 and the following calendar years.Aid subject to safety guarantees.The Commission felt it was appropriate to award aid only to meat of sound and fair saleable quality meat having obtained the health mark referred to in Directive 64/433/EEC (last modified by Directive 95/23/EC) on health conditions for the production and marketing of fresh meat. The stored meat must not derive from animals slaughtered as a result of emergency measures (due to the risk of BSE), must be of Community origin and comply with the maximum radioactivity levels permitted under Community law.--In addition to...