WRITTEN QUESTION P-1507/01

by Pere Esteve (ELDR) to the Commission

(15 May 2001)

Subject: Extension of the financing for certain nut and/or locust bean quality and marketing improvement plans approved in 1990

On 19 March 2001 the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers adopted Regulation (EC) No 558/2001(1), pursuant to which the financing for all nut and/or locust bean quality and marketing improvement plans which by the year 2000 had been in operation for 10 years may be extended for a maximum period of one year.

Article 1 of that regulation states that the extension applies solely to producer organisations with improvement plans approved in 1990, whilst it is specified in Article 2 that aid is restricted to areas for which an aid application has been submitted in respect of the tenth year of the plan.

The producer organisations with improvement plans approved in 1990 include four Spanish ones. Two of these (Abertal and Producciones de Frutos Secos Asociados) are based in Catalonia and they have merged with two other producer organisations whose improvement plans were approved after 1990 (Abertal with Arboreto, whose improvement plan was approved on 9 February 1996, and Producciones de Frutos Secos Asociados with Profusal, whose plan was approved on 3 May 1996).

According to the way in which the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food interprets the above regulation, those two producer organisations (Arboreto and Profusal) may not submit an application for an extension of financing in respect of the areas included in their improvement plan which have been under the scheme for 10 years, in view of the fact that the original organisations (Abertal and Producciones de Frutos Secos Asociados) have ceased to exist, for which reason the provisions of Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 558/2001 are not applicable since the new organisations with which they merged date from after 1990.

In the light of the above facts, would the Commission say whether or not the producer organisations which submitted an improvement plan in 1990 and which subsequently merged with another, more recent producer organisation (which has already submitted an application for aid in respect of areas which have been under the scheme for 10 years) may submit an application for an extension of their funding (submitted, that is, by the new producer organisation) for those areas and in respect of operations carried out in those areas prior to 15 June 2001?

(1) OJ L 84, 23.3.2001, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(18 June 2001)

Council Regulation (EC) No 558/2001 of 19 March 2001 extending for a period of up to one year the financing of certain quality and marketing improvement plans approved under Title IIa of Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72, enables recognised producer organisations, whose improvement plans were approved in 1990, to request continued financing of their plans for up to one year and until 15 June 2001 at the latest.

This right is maintained for a producer organisation whose improvement plan was approved in 1990, and which ceased to exist following its merger with a new organisation whose plan dates from after 1990.

Thus areas within a plan which was approved in 1990, and which subsequently have been included in/transferred to another plan, retain eligibility for an eleventh year of aid under Regulation (EC) No 558/2001, and up to 15 June 2001 at the latest, as long as all other conditions pertaining to the eligibility for aid remain fulfilled.