EU farm ministers agreed this week on a package of prices for 1997/1998

Date: 26/06/1997

which will be similar to current levels. After three days of talks, they put off a cut in compensation payments to cereal farmers proposed by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler. He had called for a 1.4 billion ecu reduction in the payments to provide extra funding for beef farmers hit by the BSE crisis and insisted afterwards that the plan remained on the table.