EU governments will get their last chance next week to voice their views on the best approach for overhauling the bloc's sugar regime before three well-known options are whittled down to one, officials said on Wednesday.
The EU's special agriculture committee, a policy-setting body comprising top officials from national farm authorities, will meet on Monday to debate a confidential paper that outlines the European Commission's broad strategy for sugar.
Although the Commission has pledged to publish its preferred reform option next month, not all the positions of the EU's 25 member states are completely clear.
Last year, it issued three options: to keep the status quo, cut internal prices while gradually abandoning national production quotas eligible for subsidy or full liberalisation.
EU officials with access to the paper said it was now clear that apart from July's announcement, there would be no detailed legal proposals for reforming the sugar sector until 2005.
"This will probably be the last chance for the member states...and the last chance for the Commission's people to express their views again before presenting the step before the legal proposal," one EU official told Reuters.
The EU executive was expected to wait for the impact of last year's sweeping farm reform to become clearer, and for two budgetary issues to be settled: The 2005 budget, and the EU's broader financial plans for the period 2007-2013.
"It looks like we're not going to see a detailed proposal before early 2005," the official said. "This would gain some time and take into account the possible outcome of the Doha Round (of world trade talks) and a decision on the 2005 budget."
The favoured reform option of EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler, due to leave office at the end of October, is to cut prices. He has often said the other two options are unfeasible.
The EU's support system keeps internal prices at more than three times the international market. Cutting prices would also help mollify EU critics such as Australia, Brazil and Thailand, which have filed a suit against EU sugar policy at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). A ruling is expected in September.
One idea contained in the paper, advocated by Germany, is to include subsidies for sugar beet growing in the EU's new single farm payment, adding to cereals and other subsidies that will soon be made by Brussels as agreed in last year's reform.
The overall mood of EU governments is still unclear and a large void appears to lie between two extreme camps. Most states are reluctant to reveal their hands until the result of the WTO dispute against the EU is known.
Several countries led by top producer France have already played down the need for reform before mid-2006, when the current regime is due to expire. Others like Spain are more entrenched and want to keep the status quo.
Denmark and Sweden are keen for full liberalisation, while Britain - a key producer and home to Europe's largest refiner - says it is still consulting with domestic industries.
One of the trickiest problems to solve with any hefty price cuts will be to persuade reluctant governments, particularly of poorer EU states, to accept the idea of thousands of job losses. "Several delegations are worried that a sudden and huge price cut would probably lead to only one or two countries being able to produce sugar in the EU," the official said.