WRITTEN QUESTION E-1958/03

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(13 June 2003)

Subject: Figures on payments under the EAGGF Guarantee Section

In his Written Question P-3775/02(1) António Campos asked the Commission about the total amount of money spent each year by the EAGGF Guarantee Section on the 100 largest beneficiaries in each Member State. The Commission's answer, however, relates only to direct aid, which accounts for no more than about 60 % of aggregate EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure.

Does the Commission not have information in the CATS database that would enable it to answer Mr Campos's question about EAGGF Guarantee Section funding as a whole?

What is the total amount of money spent each year under the EAGGF Guarantee Section on the 100 largest beneficiaries in each Member State, including expenditure over and above direct aid?

(1) OJ C 192 E, 14.8.2003, p. 138.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(16 July 2003)

Two tables which are sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat show for 14 Member States(1) the total amounts and the percentages which are perceived by the 100 most important recipients of direct aid (in the sense of Council Regulation (CE) No 1259/1999(2)) and other aid paid under the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) Guarantee(3).

For the table relating to the other payments under EAGGF Guarantee it is essential to elaborate on the following points, also in order to explain why a relatively large part of these aid payments is paid to a limited number of recipients.

The recipients of Community aid for some market instruments such as export refunds, public storage or other market disposal measures are normally companies or institutional units. Nonetheless, the purpose of these measures is to balance the agricultural markets and to maintain a reasonable price level and therefore to assure a fair income to farmers. Therefore, the farmers are of course the ultimate beneficiaries of these support systems even if no direct aid payments are perceived by them.

Certain common market organisations such as for fruit and vegetables, bananas or tobacco are managed in a way that payments are normally made to producer organisations. Some of these producer organisations count for several hundred members and therefore the amounts involved are important. Nevertheless, the producer organisations receive the payments in order to transmit them to the final beneficiaries. However, these transactions latter are not contained in the CATS database.

The common market organisation for sugar provides support mechanisms that are not geared at farmers directly. Such measures are export refunds, production refunds granted on the use of certain eligible products by the chemical industry or marketing aids for sugar produced and refining aids for refining certain raw sugars into white sugar. Here again the farmers are the ultimate beneficiaries of these support systems even if they do not perceive direct aid payments.

Certain market instruments provide that the aid payments are made to the processors of the commodities concerned, such as dried fodder or cotton. Clearly, the farmers are the ultimate beneficiaries of these support systems even if they do not perceive direct aid payments.

The table excludes negative amounts caused by sanctions, recoveries and penalties.

The table does not include the payments made for rural development aid under the EAGGF Guarantee section. The nature of these aid payments does not allow that the CATS database contains complete data for all payments made to final beneficiaries under this regime.

As a final point it is underlined that, following the policy changes proposed by the Commission, the share of the non direct aid schemes in relation to the direct aid schemes has substantially decreased and this trend is continuing. Over the last ten years the support through other EAGGF Guarantee aid payments has dropped from 91 % of our budget to some 35 % in 2001.

(1) For Greece no sufficient data is available.

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 1259/1999 of 17 May 1999 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy, OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.

(3) The figures concern the financial year 2000.