WRITTEN QUESTION E-1352/97 by Miguel Arias Cañete (PPE) to the Commission (21 April 1997)

Subject: Cotton sowing forecasts for the 1997/98 marketing year

The extremely serious flooding caused by heavy rain last winter has affected 70 750 hectares of crops in Andalusia, causing losses of PTA 128.500 million in the Andalusian farming sector. 96% of Spanish

cotton is grown in Andalusia. Since 100% of the areas affected are in the cotton growing regions and what has basically been affected is the sowing of winter cereals, the forecast figures for cotton sowing are rising, cotton being the alternative crop for resowing in the areas affected.

Forecasts indicate that 25 000 extra hectares will be sown as a result of the disaster, over and above the normal 90 000 hectares. Given that this will produce approximately 385 000 tonnes, the National Guaranteed Quantity (laid down as 249 000 tonnes for Spain) will be overshot by 54%.

The situation is very serious, since over and above the foregoing, there is the fact that over 96% of the farms concerned are family smallholdings; therefore what measures does the Commission intend to take?

Does the Commission intend to propose to the Council that Regulations 1553/95 ((OJ L 148, 30.6.1995, p. 45. )) and 1554/95 ((OJ L 148, 30.6.1995, p. 48. )) on penalties for exceeding the National Guaranteed Quantity might be amended for Spain, with a maximum penalty of 10%, so as not to worsen still further the situation in which Andalusian farmers find themselves?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (5 May 1997)

The Commission regrets the problems which have caused the sudden expansion in Spain of the area sown to cotton for the 1997/98 marketing year and the consequences this will have for the co-responsibility of producers, but it would like to remind the Honourable Member that prior to the reform of the aid scheme for cotton from the 1995/96 marketing year onwards, the former system required co-responsibility across the whole of the Community, with a maximum limit (buffer) built into the abatement mechanism. Under this arrangement of Community-wide solidarity, Spanish growers were several times the victims of the former stabilizer system without being responsible for the overshoot because Spanish production was suffering considerably from drought.

In order to remedy these negative effects, i.e. the fact that increased production in one Member State was resulting in aid cuts in two other Member States, the Council decided, on a proposal from the Commission, to introduce national guaranteed quantities from the 1995/96 marketing year onwards with the aim of making sure that producers in each Member State take steps to repond to overshoots themselves. To offset this, the limit on penalty aid cuts was removed. The principle that increases in production beyond a certain threshold no longer brought any penalty was one of the main causes of runaway budget expenditure. Under the new scheme, the abatement mechanism in any case only imposes a 0.5 % penalty for each 1% of overshoot of the national reference quantity.

It should also be pointed out that the basic features of the current aid scheme, including in particular the aspects involving the stabilizer regime, have been laid down for a five-year period which ends with the 1999/2000 marketing year; before then, the Commission will be forwarding to the Council an assessment report on the way the aid scheme has functioned.

For all these reasons, it does not seem possible to accept the Honourable Member's suggestion of introducing a buffer of 10%, even if only for 1997/98 because of exceptional circumstances.