No C 310/36 Official Journal of the European Communities 30. 11. 81 
Opinion on the agricultural aspects of the enlargement of the Community to include Spain 
The opinion of the Committee is not based on any text. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
At its 187th plenary session held on 29 and 30 April 1981 the Committee, acting on a proposal 
from the Bureau, decided to deliver an opinion on the abovementioned subject on its own 
initiative. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 190th 
plenary session held in Brussels on 23 and 24 September 1981. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Treaty setting up the European 
Economic Community, 
Having regard to the fourth paragraph of Article 20 of its 
Rules of Procedure, 
Having regard to its decision of 29 April 1981, instructing 
the Section for Agriculture to draw up an own-initiative 
opinion on the agricultural aspects of the enlargement of 
the Community to include Spain, 
Having regard to the opinion adopted by the Section for 
Agriculture at its 226th meeting on 16 July 1981, 
Having regard to the report submitted by the Rapporteur, 
Mr Lauga, 
Having regard to the discussions at the 190th plenary 
session held on 23 and 24 September 1981 (meeting of 
23 September 1981), 
ISSUED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
by a very large majority (two votes against and five 
abstentions): 
By opting for enlargement, the Community has expressed 
a certain political will. 
Even it is seen as both a golden opportunity and a 
necessity the enlargement of the Community to include 
Spain must be accepted as a fact that cannot be called into 
question. The Economic and Social Committee's position 
and the opinions it has delivered on this matter are 
clear. It is therefore necessary to adopt a resolutely constructive 
approach to the prospect of enlargement. It must be 
realized that it will be a complicated undertaking, that the 
stakes are very high and that both the Community and 
Spain owe it to themselves to make a success of it. 
The task of the present Community, as it embarks on 
enlargement, is to avoid haste and a rough and ready 
approach, and to do everything possible to create the 
conditions for a sound and stable structure. Enlargement 
must be successful; 'cut price' enlargement cannot 
succeed. The governments concerned realize that they 
will have to shoulder the responsibilities - especially 
financial - resulting from the choice they have clearly 
made in favour of this enlargement of the Community to 
include Spain. 
The integration of Spain into the Community will alter 
both the size and the make-up of the Community's 
agricultural sector. 
For Spain, as for any applicant State, accession to the 
Community naturally implies acceptance in its entirety of 
the acquis communautaire; this is the fundamental rule of 
any Community. Although acceptance of the acquis 
communautaire is a non-negotiable principle, it should 
not, however, be forgotten that the Community is 
sovereign and there is nothing to prevent it, when faced 
with an extension of its territory and a possible change in 
some economic parameters, from improving this acquis 
communautaire to further its properly perceived interests 
and, which is what concerns us, to create greater internal 
cohesion within the common agricultural policy and the 
organization of agricultural markets. 
This enlargement of the Community naturally implies a 
strict respect for the basic principles of the CAP, including 
common prices, Community preference and joint 
financial responsibility. 
30. 11. 81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 310/37 
Of these three principles, it is Community preference 
which, more than any other, must be implemented 
immediately and without restriction, since it determines 
the internal balance of trade and the market systems. 
Common prices will have to come into effect gradually, in 
the course of a transitional period designed to allow the 
progressive harmonization of costs and prices. This 
transitional period will have to include effective 
mechanisms to ensure common prices in trade between 
the present Community and the acceding State. 
While the differences in productivity and costs, and 
consequently in prices, argue in favour of a transitional 
period geared to the extent of these differences, alignment 
with the rules governing production and marketing, as 
embodied in certain market regimes, must, however, take 
place immediately, in accordance with the principle of the 
acquis communautaire. 
Joint financial responsibility means that all the Member 
States participate on the same bases in the financing of 
total Community expenditure. This principle incidentally 
ensures observance of the first two principles mentioned 
above. 
I. GENERAL PROBLEMS RAISED BY THE -
ENLARGEMENT OF THE COMMUNITY TO INCLUDE 
SPAIN 
1.1. The balance of Community markets 
Physical features, as well as the country's water resources, 
limit the capacity for expansion which one might expect 
of Spanish agricultural production. Nevertheless, an 
analysis of current yields - well below the average in 
some sectors of production - suggests that integration 
into more favourable market regimes, from the point of 
view both of guarantees and of prices, should help to 
unleash a latent potential for expansion, at least in some 
sectors, e.g. fruit and vegetables, wine and olive oil. 
The entry of Spain will therefore raise the problem of 
market balance in those sectors in which the Community 
is already more than self-sufficient or where the addition 
of the Spanish produce will bring this about. 
For producers a dynamic approach to the problem of 
market balance implies: 
— strict compliance with, and if necessary tightening-up 
of, production rules in those sectors where the actual 
nature of the produce or the needs of market 
' organization have led to the adoption of such rules, 
e.g. the banning of chaptalization in most 
wine-growing areas; — strict compliance with, and consequently effective 
monitoring of, standardization in those sectors where 
the nature of the produce or the orderly operation of 
trade requires it; the main example of this is the fruit 
and vegetable sector. 
These two courses of action have the advantage of 
introducing some kind of control over supply, while 
avoiding any mandatory limitation of production. These 
measures, applicable in the same way to all producers and 
forming part of a policy on quality, have the additional 
advantage of promoting on equal terms for all the rather 
neglected principle of regional specialization. 
Parallel to these efforts by producers, the Community, for 
its part, should: 
— stimulate demand in the Community; although food 
consumption in the Community seems to have been 
levelling out or showing little elasticity in its growth 
for a number of years, it is by no means certain that 
the 'crisis' will go on for ever, or even that the changes 
in households' behaviour during the crisis will have an 
adverse effect on food consumption; 
— make a determined effort to conquer external 
markets. The Community is the world's leading 
importer, buying from the rest of the world three 
times more agricultural and food products than it 
sells, but its export performance has hitherto been 
determined more by accident than advantage or 
deliberate policy. Export policy must cover the 
broadest possible range of processes and unprocessed 
products. 
1.2. Community trade with certain non-member 
countries, especially Mediterranean countries 
Over the years, the Community has concluded a whole 
series of agreements with countries in the Mediterranean 
basin involving in the main the granting of privileged 
access for these countries' farm exports. The accession of 
Spain to the Community, which will eventually result in 
the abolition of all restrictions on the sales of that 
country's goods on the enlarged Community market, may 
seriously jeopardize the current flows of exports from the 
Mediterranean countries to the EEC. The products 
affected are mainly tomatoes, olive oil and wine. 
While it is true that Spain, as (at present) a non-EEC 
country, already sends a very considerable proportion of 
its farm exports to the market of the Nine (82 7o of its total 
export of fresh fruit and vegetables; 88 % in the case of 
mandarins, 80 % in the case of oranges, 85 % in the case 
of tomatoes, 66% in the case of wine, etc.), the fact 
remains that a switch towards the Community of some of 
No C 310/38 Official Journal of th. 
its exports which at present go elsewhere may, in itself, 
compromise to a relatively much greater degree the 
exports of non-EEC Mediterranean countries. 
This 'substitution effect', presented here in static terms, 
would be further aggravated by an increase in Spanish 
production in the sectors concerned. 
For instance, the 77 % of Spanish olive oil exports which 
are at present sold outside the Community represent more 
than 100% of the total exports of olive oil from the 
countries concerned. Similarly, the proportion of Spanish 
tomato exports which do not go to the EEC (15%) 
represent 40% of the volume of these Mediterranean 
countries' exports to the Community, which accounts for 
over 90 % of their outlets. 
The Community cannot disregard this problem. At the 
same time, whatever importance it rightly attaches now, 
as in the past, to the 'global approach' in the 
Mediterranean area, it must not succumb to internal 
divisions. In theory, once Spain has joined (although in 
practice from the end of the transitional period) no 
mechanism can be allowed which is designed to stand in 
the way of the replacement of the present exports from the 
Mediterranean countries by Spanish products. 
It is therefore necessary to consider the alternatives that 
will make it possible to continue to give substance to this 
'Mediterranean policy', which the Community must 
pursue and develop. 
The following suggestions can be made: 
(a) The Community could strengthen and reorientate its 
technical, scientific and financial cooperation to help 
the third countries concerned to increase their output 
of products not easily grown in the EEC (avocados, 
grapefruit, kiwi fruit) and for which there is a 
mounting demand in the Community. Under new 
agreements these products could replace those 
currently covered by these trade agreements 
(tomatoes, peppers, etc.). 
(b) The Community should give its full attention to the 
structural deficit in the agro-foodstuffs balance of 
these non-EEC Mediterranean countries. This is in 
fact due to a rising demand for basic products such as 
milk, cereals, etc. In an attempt to close the trade gap 
these countries export fruit and vegetables to the 
Community market. To complement the 
reorientation of production the Community could 
supply basic products on terms calculated to reduce 
the import costs of these countries. Supplying goods 
on special terms would, however, raise problems 
both inside and outside the Community and these 
problems would have to be faced. European Communities 30. 11. 81 
1.3. Community finances 
The budget question concerns the operation of the 
Community as a whole but it also has a special bearing on 
the CAP, since this is the only policy so far to involve 
integrated management at Community level, so that it 
naturally accounts for a decisive portion of the budget. 
The accession of Spain is bound to have a considerable 
impact on Community resources, on which the CAP's 
operating instruments are primarily dependent. 
Estimates made by the Commission indicate the Spain's 
accession will result in a net increase in agricultural 
expenditure of the order of 1 200 million EUA per year -
this at the end of the transitional period. 
To this must be added the potential expenditure involved 
in applying regional development policy, social policy, 
etc. to Spain. This should of course be viewed in a 
dynamic context - that of an acceleration of needs. 
While there is no question of the Community wanting to 
do more tomorrow for the latest member of the 'club' than 
it has done so far for itself, one can appreciate that the 
integration in the Community of a vast country (which by 
itself would in 1981 increase by 32% the total 
Community working population engaged in agriculture 
and whose standard of living is at the lower end of the 
Community scale) will pose once again, but more acutely 
than in the past, the 'structural question', i.e. the need to 
establish a balance between the regions of the Community 
with all the challenges and the financial requirements that 
this implies. 
Faced with this prospect, the Community has no 
alternative. If the Community wishes to implement the 
choice it has made in favour of enlargement, it will have to 
be prepared to accept the financial consequences of this 
choice, which represent an additional factor mitigating in 
favour of a change in the ceiling on the Community's own 
resources as soon as the need is felt, which will be before 
long. This is a political decision that will have to be made 
primarily by the Member States. 
At the same time, the Community should acquire new 
types of resources alongside its 'own resources', which 
will remain strictly limited for the time being. 
2. SECTORAL PROBLEMS POSED BY ENLARGEMENT 
2.1. Spain's entry into the Community will pose 
specific problems in a number of sectors. Whilst the 
extension of the acquis communautaire to Spain is liable 
to create difficulties on certain markets (sensitive 
products, which are or will be olive oil, wine, and fruit 
and vegetables) thought should also be given to the 
difficulties that entering the Community could cause 
some Spanish sectors, in particular certain animal 
products such as milk or beef and veal. 
30. 11. 81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 310/39 
As regards overall trade in agricultural and food products 
between Spain and the Community, there will have to be 
mechanisms during the transitional period to offset the 
differences in prices between the present Community and 
the acceding State. These mechanisms will have to be 
particularly effective because, on the one hand, price 
differences will be greater at the start of the transitional 
period and, on the other, market prices will be subject to 
greater fluctuations according to the type of guarantees or 
support mechanisms in the sectors in question. 
2.2. Enlargement could bring problems for some 
Spanish sectors covering the so-called 'northern 
products'. 
As a result of structural factors, changes in supply 
conditions and producer prices sometimes far in excess of 
Community prices, certain sectors such as milk, beef and 
veal and perhaps sugar beet, could find themselves in 
difficulty. 
The role of the transitional period, whose importance 
both for the present Community and for Spain itself is 
evident, will be to enable the necessary transitions and 
adjustments to be made. 
2.3. Fruit and vegetables 
The available statistics on production and prices indicate 
that, in this sector, the enlargement of the Community to 
include Spain will create problems in maintaining a 
balance from the quantitative point of view, in the case of 
some products. Much will depend, of course, on the way 
in which Spanish production in this sector develops; the 
products which are already emerging as potential surplus 
products, or seem likely to be subject to regional market 
imbalances, include apples, pears, table grapes, lemons, 
peaches, tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettuce, etc. 
In addition to the purely quantitative factors affecting this 
sector - which is one of the most 'sensitive' and has only 
very limited support mechanisms for a very small number 
of products - there arises the question of price. The risk 
of market disruption as a result of too rapid a link-up 
between the present Community and Spain without 
adequate precautions depends more on the price levels 
prevailing in the applicant State than on questions purely 
of quantity. 
In the face of the quantitative problems which will 
confront the Community after enlargement, we must seek 
ways of bringing cohesion and balance to the sector as a 
whole in the enlarged Community. Steps must be taken to 
prevent disruptions, which could affect whole regions. 
With these aims in view, there is a need to seek a certain 
measure of complementarity between regions of the 
Community which takes account of the climatic 
characteristics of the regions concerned and could alleviate market difficulties and meet consumer 
requirements. 
In order to achieve greater stability in the fruit and 
vegetable sector there is a need to strengthen Community 
preference, strictly apply and monitor the observance of 
Community quality standards, from the producer stage to 
the consumer stage, to organize along economic lines 
and, finally, to introduce more efficient methods of 
managing the Community market. 
The need to extend greatly the list of products subject to 
reference prices has been apparent for a longtime, and the 
prospect of Spanish entry has made this need more 
pressing. When the common market was set up, the 
Community showed a large deficit in the vast majority of 
products in this sector; the level of production today 
makes it urgently necessary to extend reference prices so 
as to ensure market stability (and this will be even more 
necessary in the future with the enlargement of the 
Community). The list of products subject to reference 
prices should be extended straightaway so that even 
during the transitional period it will be possible to prevent 
Spanish produce from causing unacceptable disruptions 
on the market. 
As regards the products for which (in two Member States 
at certain periods) there are restrictions on imports from 
non-member countries (cf. Annex III to Regulation 
1035/72), experience has shown that this so-called 
'timetable' system is especially effective in the case of 
products without a reference price. Since an existing 
'good solution' should never be abandoned in favour of a 
possible 'better solution', it would be wiser to keep the 
timetables in force throughout the transitional period. 
The timetables would only be abolished when reference 
prices are fixed in advance vis-a-vis non-member 
countries for the products in question. 
Provision should be made in the economic organization of 
the sector for the strengthening of producers' groups. By 
controlling sales, or the initial placing of goods on the 
market, and thus exerting a certain control over supplies 
from farmers, the producers' groups should, in the long 
term, indirectly influence the general pattern and 
development of production. 
If producers' groups are to play their part effectively in 
stabilizing the markets, the Community must deal 
satisfactorily with the problem posed by the failure of 
non-members of producer groups to respect the 
disciplines which group members impose on 
themselves. 
The producers' groups need more comprehensive 
instruments to improve their management of the market. 
The intervention mechanisms (purchase on the open 
market or withdrawal by producers' groups) which at 
present apply to only a few products, should be extended 
to a considerably larger number of products. In addition 
to considerations of fairness towards a sector which has 
No C 310/40 Official Journal of the European Communities 30. 11. 81 
much lower guarantees than certain other major areas of 
production, it is also a question of efficiency. Indeed, 
there are reasons to believe that the extension of 
intervention mechanisms to a large number of products 
will have the effect of restoring balance within the sector 
and will promote diversification of production, instead of 
the present concentration on the few products benefitting 
from intervention, which results precisely in more 
frequent intervention. 
Finally, it is important that, in adapting the regulations, 
provision should be made for more rapid and more 
efficient implementation of remedial measures in the 
event of a crisis (e.g. a fall in prices). 
Citrus fruit 
In addition to the general problems of the fruit sector, the 
question of marketing premiums arises in the case of 
citrus fruit; Spanish accession would eventually deprive 
these of much of their meaning. Marketing premiums, 
however, in addition to taking account of peripheral and 
scattered location, are also in keeping with the specific 
nature of some types of citrus fruit production in some 
parts of the Community. 
If the marketing premium is abolished, it goes without 
saying that the corresponding reference prices - which 
have occasionally been neutralized in exchange for the 
premium - should be revived and updated at regular 
intervals. This process should at all events not take place 
until the end of the transitional period. 
Because of their present variety policy (blood oranges), 
Italian orange producers should retain the marketing 
premium for the duration of their ambitious conversion 
programme. 
Wine 
There must be no delay in applying the Community ban 
on new plantings to Spain too. 
Similarly, the adoption by Spain of the acquis 
communautaire will mean the abolition of the practice of 
coupage between red wines and white wines. 
Continuation of this practice would not only make the 
long-term management of vineyards more difficult, but 
would also make the Community's intervention 
mechanisms, which apply to red wines on the one hand 
and to white wines on the other, impracticable or difficult 
to check. The banning of red/white 'coupage' will aggravate the 
surpluses of Spanish white wine, which will depress 
Community prices. In this context proposals will be 
made, firstly, for a reorganization plan and a change to 
red grape varieties in definite wine-producing areas, 
and, secondly, for programmes for grubbing and 
abandonment of production in those areas which do not 
meet the criteria for wine-growing areas and where white 
wine production predominates. These measures would be 
in line with reorganization and conversion programmes 
undertaken in the past in certain parts of the 
Community. 
The ban on irrigation which has already been imposed in 
Spain and which applies either as a custom or a rule in the 
present Member States, should be formalized and 
extended to the whole Community, with the exception of 
specific and strictly delimited areas in which occasional 
irrigation is a sine qua non for the viability of 
vineyards. 
At the same time, the use of products obtained from 
grapes (grape must or grape sugar) - which should in due 
course be laid down as the sole method in the regulations 
- should gradually replace traditional chaptalization 
(beet sugar) in the wine-growing areas where enrichment 
by the addition of sugar is still allowed. 
Above and beyond the guidelines proposed above 
concerning supply, there are greater risks of imbalance 
than the Community has ever faced before, as a result of 
the addition to the Community's potential of the world's 
largest area under vines. 
In this context, the regulations governing wine-growing 
should provide for an increase in preventive distillation 
which could be carried out at the start of the year on the 
basis of the most recent forecasts of harvests and stocks. 
To enhance the effectiveness of preventive distillation, 
means must obviously be provided for achieving the 
target quantities. Making distillation more attractive by 
means of price levels would not seem to be the most 
effective way: either the objective will not be achieved 
because the price will be too low, or the price will be 'too 
adequate' and preventive distillation will overshoot the 
target. 
Two possibilities are worth considering: 
(a) making preventive distillation obligatory, like the 
wine deliveries which can at present be required 
depending on the yield; 
(b) making preventive distillation more attractive by, 
for example, making those engaging in it eligible for 
storage contracts in the course of the year. 
30. 11. 81 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 310/41 
Measures to be taken in connection with enlargement 
should be concerned with the normal development of 
demand no less than with controlling supply. It is 
therefore essential that the Community take the necessary 
steps to remove the barriers to consumption and, in 
particular, that it complete as soon as possible the 
harmonization of customs and excise duties, first of all 
among the different types of beverages within each State 
and then among the States themselves. 
Olive oil 
Spain far exceeds self-sufficiency and has a self-supply rate 
of the order of 140%. 
Although lower than in Greece, for example, Spanish 
consumption per head of population is considerably 
higher than the Community average. 
Whereas in the Community the price ratio of olive oil to 
other vegetable oils is 2 • 4:1 for the consumer (i.e. taking 
into account aid to consumption) in Spain it is 1-6:1. 
Community protection for oilseeds is non-existant and 
for vegetable oils it is minimal; protection is greater in 
Spain. 
The price guaranteed to the Community's producers 
(including production aid) is approximately twice the 
current Spanish intervention price, which could 
encourage an increase in production in Spain. 
If Spanish protection for oilseeds and oils is reduced to 
bring it into line with Community protection, and at the 
same time Spanish prices are raised in line with 
Community prices, the resulting change in the price ratio 
of olive oil to other vegetable oils could well have a serious 
effect on Spanish consumption and lead to surpluses 
whose disposal would involve considerable 
expenditure. 
The question of olive oil and other vegetable oils affords 
an example of the way in which the concept of the acquis 
comtnunautaire can be interpreted both strictly and in a 
liberal spirit. 
The main aim in fact in the olive oil sector is to achieve a 
price ratio which would allow consumption levels to be 
maintained in the enlarged Community without this 
consumer price ratio entailing a marked increase in 
expenditure. 
Simple extension to Spain of the existing Community 
price and protection systems in respect of imported oilseeds and vegetable oils would necessitate - if overall 
consumption is to be maintained in the enlarged 
Community - a level of aid to consumption which would 
place a heavy burden on Community finances: the extra 
expenditure arising from the application to Spain of the 
current Community regime as it stands is estimated at 
about 650 million EUA by the end of the transitional 
period. 
Spain and Italy are the largest producers of olive oil in the 
world. The equation is changing, so the approach must 
change. 
Instead of applying the present Community system to 
Spain it would be better to seek a regime less costly to the 
Community within the framework of an overall policy on 
oils and fats that takes account of the economic and social 
importance of olive oil in the enlarged Community. 
It is all the more essential to consider a less costly regime 
of this kind in view of the fact that the particularly liberal 
arrangements governing imported oilseeds and vegetable 
oils seem to be increasingly incompatible with the 
Common Agricultural Policy. 
The various proposals which have been put forward since 
the establishment of the EEC, in particular the 
introduction of a tax on all oils and fats - a proposal 
which has always come up against considerable practical 
difficulties - make it essential to carry out a thorough 
consideration of this problem with a view to removing the 
many outstanding ambiguities. 
The Committee has called upon the Commission to carry 
out such an examination on a number of occasions. As the 
Commission has so far not acted upon this request, the 
Section will shortly endeavour to meet this need. 
In conjunction with the measures to restore general 
balance to the market for olive oil, measures should be 
taken at the production level with a view to: 
(1) adopting programmes to encourage grubbing in 
areas where a switch to other crops is possible; 
(2) adopting reorganization programmes to improve the 
productivity of olive plantations, eventually reduce 
production costs and thereby cut marketing costs by 
adjusting to market demands; 
(3) ensuring that as soon as Spain becomes a member of 
the EEC no grants may be provided in that country 
in respect of new planting over and above those 
permitted by the rules in the present Community. 
On the demand front, there is a need to take stock of and 
make an economic assessment of potential outlets on 
outside markets, including the Middle East and Latin 
No C 310/42 Official Journal of the European Communities 30. 11. 81 
America, where eating habits should provide scope for an 
increase in olive oil consumption. 
Final comments 
It is not a matter, therefore, of isolating the markets of the 
Community in its present form from Spanish markets, but 
of taking account of the special characteristics of all 
partners - present and future - to achieve greater 
cohesion, which must remain the prime objective of the 
Community. 
The venture is fraught with many difficulties. The present 
Community will have to proceed with great caution. We 
have seen this in connection with the transitional period, 
during which there will have to be effective mechanisms 
for adjusting prices ins trade as Spanish prices are brought 
into line with Community prices. This will have to take 
place over an appropriate period so that on either side of 
the boundaries of the present Community, agricultural 
activities regions and ultimately the people behind these 
Done at Brussels, 23 September 1981. activities and these regions, can adjust to the new 
Community dimension. 
They will not be able to do this on their own however. 
The burden of enlargement cannot fall on agricultural 
production alone and on farmers located (in the case of 
those who are most directly affected by enlargement) in 
what are already the most difficult regions of our 
Community. 
By opting for enlargement the Community has expressed 
a very clear political will. But every political decision 
entails the commitment of the financial resources 
necessary for success. Unless these funds are available the 
enlargement of the Community would bring increased 
difficulties for all parties. These difficulties could make 
the existing obstacles in the Community more serious and 
could heighten the disappointments which have already 
occurred. If we were to fail in this venture the Community 
would suffer a severe blow; failure might sow seeds of 
disintegration which could have the most far-reaching 
effects. Enlargement is a challenge. We have accepted the 
challenge. Failure is out of the question for both the 
Community and Spain. 
The Chairman 
of the 
Economic and Social Committee 
Tomas ROSEINGRAVE