REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL on utilisation (1997-2000) of Council Regulation (EC) No 723/97 on implementation of Member States' action programmes on policing of EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Member States' programmes 1997-2000

3. Amounts paid to Member States 1997-2000

4. Inspectors recruited or redeployed

5. Training courses organised

6. Member States' policing operations

7. Need for Community aid

8. Conclusions for 1997-2000

9. Programmes part-financed in 2001

10. Commission proposal

11. Annexes I, Ia, II, IIa, III, IIIa

1. Introduction

To encourage Member States to reinforce their policing of EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure Council Regulation (EC) No 723/97 provides financial support for action programmes to adjust and improve policing structures and their effectiveness.

The scope of these programmes is restricted to policing required under Community legislation entering into force after 15 October 1996. The Community contribution is granted to the national administrations and its rate is restricted to 50% of eligible expenditure. It is granted by calendar year for five years from 1997.

The Regulation specifies the categories of eligible expenditure: initial expenditure on creation or reorganisation of inspection services, including redeployment or recruitment of inspectors, transfers of these, purchase or hire of equipment and facilities required for policing work, organisation of training and briefing courses, and any other suitable means of making policing more effective.

Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 723/97 states, "After the fifth year, the Commission shall report to the Council on the results of the application of this Regulation, on the basis of assessment reports prepared by the Member States..." But at the Special Committee on Agriculture on 18 September 2000 a majority of the Member States, with a view to considering an extension of the period during which Community aid can be granted, asked the Commission to study the impact of the Regulation from 1997 to 2000. To this end the Member States were sent a questionnaire in October 2000. This report sets out the main conclusions drawn from their replies.

2. Member States' programmes 1997-2000

Belgium

Sanitel programme in connection with Council Regulation (CE) No 820/97. Sanitel is a computerised inventory management system for bovines including the entries to and removals from each herd. The programme lasts four years (1997-2000). Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97 establishes a system for identification and registration of bovine animals that must be in operation by 1 January 2000.

Denmark

Creation of the national bovine identification and registration database in connection with Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97. The programme was part-financed in 1997. No programme was presented in 1998, 1999 or 2000.

Germany

- WEBDOC technical information system action programme (1997 and 1998) to make available to the Länder for the purposes of Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97 an internet/intranet communication and information tool. Germany considers such a tool essential for policing EAGGF Guarantee expenditure,

- Land Baden-Württemberg's action programme (1998 and 1999) on policing of EAGGF Guarantee expenditure under the market organisation provisions for fruit and vegetables (Regulation (EC) No 2200/96),

- Land Thüringen's action programme (1998 and 1999) on policing of the market organisation provisions for fruit and vegetables (Regulation (EC) No 2200/96),

- Programme (1998 and 1999) to create an information and guaranteed origin system for animals, also in connection with Regulation (EC) No 820/97 requiring Member States to bring into operation a national database for identification and registration of bovines,

- Programme (2000) to establish uniform technical standards in order to rationalise management of EAGGF Guarantee aid measures by the paying agencies.

Greece

- Action programme (1998 and 1999) for stronger policing of fruit and vegetable producer groups operating under Council Regulation (EC) No 2200/96. This involves enlarging DIDAGEP's computer network to permit electronic monitoring of producer groups and so improve policing,

- Programme (2000) to recruit inspectors for the purposes of the new fruit and vegetable market organisation (Regulations (EC) Nos 2200/96, 2201/96 and 2202/96).

Spain

Creation of the national bovine identification and registration database (1997-2000) pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

France

Creation of the national bovine identification and registration database (1997-2000) pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

Ireland

Creation of the national bovine identification and registration database (1997-2000) pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

Italy

Creation of the national bovine identification and registration database (1997-1999) pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

Luxembourg

For better identification and movement tracing of bovines as required by Regulation (EC) No 820/97 Luxembourg is adopting the Sanitel system developed by Belgium (1997-2000).

Netherlands

Action programmes for 1997, 1998 and 1999 to improve notification of bovine identifications between abattoirs, export centres, cattle markets and grouping centres. The project, which includes adjustments at computerised database level, aims at conformity with Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

Portugal

Programme (1999-2000) to set up a national bovine identification and registration system as required by Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

Austria

Programme (1999-2000) to set up a national bovine identification and registration system as required by Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

United Kingdom

- Programme (1997-1998) to set up a national bovine identification and registration system as required by Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

- Introduction (computer and other technical aspects) of a new risk analysis criterion geared to the absence of cattle identification checks (2000).

Finland

Action programme (1997-2000) for a reorganisation of bovine sector policing involving improved identification and registration in line with Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

Sweden

- Programme (1997-1998) to set up a national bovine identification and registration system as required by Regulation (EC) No 820/97.

- Programme (2000) to set up a pig register in line with Council Directive 97/12/EC on health problems affecting intra-Community trade in bovines and swine.

3. Amounts paid to Member States 1997-2000

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Two countries received most Community aid: Spain (22.6% of the total paid out) and France (20.1%). Six countries were below the 1% level: Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden.

The annexed tables [1] break expenditure down into six strands:

[1] Italy did not return the questionnaire. The data Member States provided for 2000 is very disparate, being either incomplete or not comparable (some countries notified expenditure made by the date of the questionnaire, others gave a projection for the whole year). No table for 2000 is annexed.

- creation or reorganisation of inspection services,

- recruitment or redeployment of inspectors,

- purchase or hire of computer equipment/facilities,

- purchase or hire of other equipment/facilities,

- organisation of training and briefing courses for inspectors,

- other means of making policing more effective.

For the three years 1997 to 1999 total programme expenditure was EUR 74 208 974. "Purchase or hire of computer equipment/facilities" by itself accounted for EUR 41 356 708, by far the biggest strand, expenditure being mainly on microcomputers, software and printers, development of new computer programmes and updating of existing ones.

4. Inspectors recruited or redeployed

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For the entire Fifteen expenditure on recruitment/redeployment

- was nil in 1997,

- 1% of total expenditure in 1998 and

- 2% of total expenditure in 1999,

in other words marginal. Expenditure on "Creation or reorganisation of inspection services" accounted for 11% of total expenditure over 1997 to 1999.

5. Training courses organised

Ireland organised a number of courses fully financed from national funds.

France organised training sessions on inspection rules, methods and procedures and on agricultural regulations and legislation (details for each year not given; number of participants not stated).

Belgium

In connection with adjustment of Sanitel to the new European Directives, a training session was held in 1997 on procedures involving computer technology. 20 veterinary inspectors and 30 sanitary veterinarians attended.

Germany

- procedures involving computer technology, 6 participants in 1998, 10 in 1999,

- agricultural regulations and legislation: 2 participants in 1998, 2 in 1999,

- other training: 4 participants in 1997, 14 in 1998, 174 in 1999.

Greece

In 1999 3 training sessions were organised:

- procedures involving computer technology: 10 participants,

- auditing procedures: 10 participants,

- agricultural regulations and legislation: 10 participants.

Spain

- inspection procedures for agricultural products: 80 participants in 1998, 10 in 1999,

- procedures involving computer technology: 2 participants in 1998, 30 in 1999,

- auditing procedures: 16 participants in 1998, 27 in 1999,

- inspection rules, methods and procedures: 105 participants in 1998, 132 in 1999,

- agricultural regulations and legislation: 2 participants in 1998, 2 in 1999,

- other training: 180 participants in 1999.

Portugal

In 1999 two training sessions were organised, one on inspection rules, methods and procedures (34 participants) and the other on agricultural regulations and legislation (34 participants).

Austria

- Agricultural product inspection procedures (103 participants in 1998, 78 in 1999),

- Seminars on negotiating techniques (34 participants in 1999).

Finland

Various training sessions covering inspection of agricultural products, auditing procedures, inspection procedures and agricultural legislation were organised in 1998 (90 participants) and 1999 (228 participants).

Over the three years 1997 to 1999 expenditure on training amounted to EUR 1 037 300 out of EUR 74 208 974 of total expenditure, a poor rate of 1% given that training is of very great importance for effective policing.

6. Member States' policing operations

The information available on the exact number of inspections carried out is too disparate to permit compilation of Community statistics. Most Member States have been open about their difficulties in precisely quantifying the extra work carried out in the Regulation (EC) No 723/97 context, given that the departments involved cover other sectors and have to make a very large number of checks every year. All Member States responding to the questionnaire agreed that the programmes had helped make their policing more effective even though this was not demonstrated by any proper cost-benefit analysis (covering total expenditure, irregularities detected, penalties imposed, volume of policing carried out, savings to Community budget etc.).

7. Need for Community financial aid

Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Greece consider such aid absolutely essential. To a lesser extent so do Belgium, Spain and France, which said that if their programmes had been financed from national resources alone it would have been more difficult to run them in time for the deadline set by the Community Regulations.

Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Sweden thought Community financing not absolutely essential to the programmes, which could have been satisfactorily mounted using national resources alone. Austria found programme management under Regulation (EC) No 723/97 very "time-consuming". Sweden was against the Regulation, considering that Community part-financing of obligatory measures only generated useless "bureaucracy" in both the Member States and the Commission. Italy, not having replied to the questionnaire, can be considered as not having any absolute need of the Regulation for execution of its programmes.

8. Conclusions for 1997-2000

More than half (56%) of total programme expenditure for 1997 to 1999 went on purchase or hire of computer equipment/facilities and installation of heavy computer systems, primarily for creation of the national databases for identification and registration of bovines required under Regulation (EC) No 820/97, the basis for the majority of programmes part-financed from 1997 to 2000. Around 1% of expenditure was on training although this is of great importance for effective policing and 11% was spent on "creation or reorganisation of inspection services".

Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Greece clearly stated that Community part-financing was absolutely essential to their programmes. The other Member States were either against extending the term of validity of the Regulation (Sweden) or thought their programmes could have been run using national resources alone (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, United Kingdom). The common position of Belgium, France and Spain is less distinct in that they consider that had the programmes been financed purely nationally it would have been more difficult to operate them for the deadline set by the Community Regulations. But all Member States replying to the questionnaire agreed, even though they could not back up their opinion by a cost-benefit analysis of the action part-financed, that the programmes had boosted the effectiveness of their policing.

9. Programmes part-financed in 2001

For all Member States together the Community aid for 2001 amounts to EUR 12 500 781, of which EUR 10 668 780 (85%) is for action on the introduction of a geographical and digital orthophoto information system for integrated management and control system purposes [2]. On 18 April 2000 DG AGRI had asked the Member States to take into account in their 2001 programmes the new obligations stemming from Regulations under discussion that would not be adopted until after the time limit for notification of programmes (31 May 2000) [3]. Only Germany, Austria and France did so, receiving aid for action on the geographical information and digital orthophoto system in 2001, at the end of which Regulation (EC) No 723/97 expires. Germany has been granted EUR 9 321 802, France EUR 549 121 and Austria EUR 797 857.

[2] Council Regulation (EC) No 1593/2000 of 17 July 2000 amending Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92 establishing an integrated administration and control system for certain Community aid schemes.

[3] Regulations (EC) Nos 1593/2000 and 1760/2000 were both under discussion before 31 May but not adopted until July.

The other components of the programmes are action to establish uniform technical standards in paying agencies' management of EAGGF Guarantee aids (Germany), inspector recruitment for the purposes of Regulation (EC) No 1621/1999 [4] (Greece) and computer system changes to permit implementation of one of the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1750/1999 on support for rural development from the EAGGF (United Kingdom). Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy did not submit programmes for 2001.

[4] Concerns aid for growing certain varieties of grapes for drying.

10. Commission's proposal

The need to protect the Community's financial interests by modernising, strengthening and adjusting policing structures for EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure leads the Commission to propose extension of the period of validity of Regulation (EC) No 723/97. All Member States replying to the questionnaire agreed, even if they could not support this opinion by a cost-benefit analysis of the measures part-financed, that their programmes had contributed to more effective policing.

Creation of a geographical information and digital orthophoto system for the purposes of the integrated administration and control system requires a substantial outlay by Member States (totalling some EUR 116 million for the Fifteen). The deadline set by the Community for it to be in place is 1 January 2005.

So far, Germany, Austria and France have granted Community aid for setting up a system. The Commission considers that it would be fairer to the other Member States to continue part-financing of such action in 2002 and would also help towards observance of the 1 January 2005 deadline.

The total impact on the Union's budget of extending Regulation (EC) No 723/97 for a further year is estimated at EUR 15 million, to be entered in budget line B1-3602.

Annex I

1997 (amounts in national currency)

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Annex Ia

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 723/97 - Assessment questionnaire

1997 (amounts in EUR)

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Annex II

1998 (amounts in national currency)

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Annex IIa

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 723/97 - Assessment questionnaire

1998 (amounts in EUR)

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Annex III

1999 (amounts in national currency)

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Annex IIIa

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 723/97 - Assessment questionnaire

1999 (amounts in EUR)

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