merrion street

Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Simon Coveney will attend his first EU Council of Agriculture Ministers in Brussels tomorrow.

Ahead of the meeting, Minister Coveney said:

 “I am looking forward to constructive engagement with the EU Commission and my colleagues in the other Member States. I have arranged to meet Agriculture Commissioner Ciolos bilaterally before the Council meeting. I intend to remind him of the importance of agriculture to the Irish economy and to raise with him three of the substantive issues we will discuss at the Council meeting, that is, CAP reform, MERCOSUR and the dairy sector. I will also be meeting separately with my Ministerial colleagues affiliated to the European Peoples Party where we will discuss CAP reform and the new EU multi-annual financial framework”.

Minister Coveney will then travel from Brussels to Paris on St Patrick’s Day where he will meet representatives of major buyers of Irish produce in the French market. He will also visit the Tourism Ireland trade stand at the MAP World Holiday Fair and the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris.