The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, will travel to Berlin, Rome and Budapest for a series of meetings with his German, Italian and Hungarian counterparts, Ilse Aigner, Mario Catania and Sándor Fazekas to discuss CAP and CFP reform prior to Ireland’s Presidency of the EU in 2013.
The meetings, according to the Minister “will present an ideal opportunity to seek support for the Irish viewpoint”.
The meetings are the latest in a series of bilateral meetings held since the beginning of the year with Ministerial colleagues from Denmark, Cyprus, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, France and the UK.
Minister Coveney has also had a number of recent meetings with the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos and with the Commissioner for Consumer Protection, John Dalli.
The Minister has also intensified his engagement with the European Parliament and recently travelled to Strasbourg for a series of engagements with members of the Agricultural Committee of the European Parliament, including the chair of the committee and the Parliament rapporteur for two of the main CAP dossiers.