EU Ministers to discuss WTO negotiations and bird influenza
Government Communications Unit
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Press release 319/2005
17 October, 2005
The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will have an extraordinary meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday 18 October. The main topics of the Council are WTO negotiations and a review of the bird influenza situation. Mari Kiviniemi, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, will represent Finland at the meeting.
The World Trade Organisation's trade talks have gained a new momentum during the past week. These few weeks are of key importance for the preparation of the ministerial meeting to be held in Hong Kong in December. In the meeting held on 10 October in Zurich, the United States made the expected move concerning agriculture. The Commission has responded to this with a new offer which includes agriculture as well as other issues for negotiation. The EU offer is conditional. The talks will continue this week in Geneva. The WTO General Council will also have a meeting.
The extraordinary meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council gives the ministers an opportunity to discuss the EU's standpoints in the WTO negotiations. The aim is not to alter the EU positions, however. Finland supports the Commission's aim to keep up the negotiation rounds and expects others to commit to this as well with a similar intensity. Finland is of the opinion that negotiations are to continue in all subject areas. As concerns agriculture, the EU's common agriculture policy sets the limits for the Commission's activities.
The situation concerning the avian influenza, or bird flu, is being monitored in consequence of the infections discovered in poultry and wild birds in Romania and Turkey. This will be further discusses on 20-21 October in Hertfordshire in the UK when the EU health ministers have an informal meeting organised by the current EU Presidency. In Finland, the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health has set up a working group on preparation for a pandemic which drafts a plan for the possibility of an outbreak. The plan will be completed by the end of February 2006 and will provide a basis for updating local and industry-specific plans. A vaccine is to be provided for the whole population.
The ministers will also discuss the EU's aid operations and the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia plus the destruction caused by tropical storm Stan in Central America.
Further information: Jari Luoto, State Under-Secretary for EU Affairs, Government Secretariat for EU Affairs, tel. +358 9 1602 2182 and Anne Huhtamäki, Counsellor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 6097 and, on bird influenza, Merja Saarinen, Ministerial Counsellor, Health Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 9 1607 4030 and Tapani Hovi, Research Professor, National Public Health Institute, tel. +358 9 47 441