WRITTEN QUESTION P-3038/00

by Luís Queiró (UEN) to the Commission

(20 September 2000)

Subject: Over-production of milk in the Community

According to the information available, Community milk production has risen sharply in the last marketing year (1999/2000).

As a result of this increase in milk production, twelve out of the fifteen Member States have exceeded the national milk quotas assigned to them.

The increase is undoubtedly due in part to a number of factors related to the consumption trend regarding dairy products and productivity gains in the sector.

Will the Commission work out an overall solution with the countries concerned in order fully to allow for likely production increases in subsequent marketing years, or will it seek to punish the producers?

Specifically as far as Portugal is concerned, the only group who would suffer if penalties were to be imposed would be producers in one of the more outlying regions, the Azores. The social consequences and economic repercussions would be extremely serious, given that there are a great many producers and milk and dairy production occupies a key place in Azorean society.

Furthermore, the Azores, like the other outermost regions, are covered by Article 299 (formerly Article 227) of the EC Treaty, which stipulates that the Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission after consulting the European Parliament, may adopt specific measures to take account of the economic and social situation in these regions resulting from their remoteness or the fact that they are islands.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(27 October 2000)

According to the information currently received from the Member States, milk production during the marketing year 1999/2000 will be slightly lower than in 1998/99 but 12 Member States out of 15 will have exceeded their reference quantity. This is the only official information although statistical cross-checks by the Commission suggest that actual production and overshooting are slightly greater than the provisional data suggest.

Under Council Regulation (EEC) No 3950/92 establishing an additional levy in the milk and milk products sector(1), an additional levy is automatically due from all the producers who have overshot their quotas when deliveries in a given year exceed the national reference quantities (quotas). However, unutilised quotas may be redistributed to other producers and these are deducted from the amounts by which individuals have overshot.

The Council introduced these quotas in 1984 and adjusted them most recently under Agenda 2000 for the period until 2008, with a view to bringing Community milk deliveries back to a level close to normal use, and then keeping them there. The Commission does not have the power to derogate from the current additional levy and does not intend to propose to the Council penalties in addition to the levies or an adjustment of the quotas to the volume of production recorded.

In the case of Portugal, the Commission considers that the fact that a substantial surplus arose there and that producers in the Azores are chiefly responsible for the levy is primarily the result of an accumulation of errors by the national and regional administrations and by operators, who did not analyse in good time the constant steady increase in Portuguese production or set up a system ensuring uniform redistribution of the unutilised individual quotas.

Discussions are in hand between the Portuguese authorities and the Commission, inter alia under Article 299(2) (formerly Article 227) of the EC Treaty, but they have not yet been concluded.

(1) OJ L 405, 31.12.1992.