EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/894

(2004/C 78 E/0945)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-4022/03

by Christos Folias (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(22 December 2003)

Subject: Comparative data in the olive oil sector

Will the Commission say whether it has comparative data on the results of controls carried out by its services over the last five years in olive oil producing countries as part of annual economic adjustments in the olive oil sector? If so what is this data? Have any penalties been imposed on the basis of the results of these controls in each olive oil producing Member State and if so, which ones?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(26 January 2004)

The expenditure related to the common market organisation of olive oil is part of the expenditure under the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund-Guarantee section (EAGGF). The Commission carries out its controls of this expenditure in the framework of the clearance of accounts (1).

On the basis of the clearance of accounts procedure, the Commission adopts separate decisions — ‘ad-hoc decisions’ — that aim to exclude expenditure for which a Member State fails to provide the Commission with reasonable assurance as to the effectiveness of the management and control procedures used to check the legality and regularity of the aid scheme.

In the case of the olive oil production aid such financial corrections have been applied in recent years to several Member States. Corrections have been applied as a flat-rate percentage of the total expenditure related to the aid scheme per financial year.

For the financial year 1998 and 1999 Greece and Spain have seen their expenditure corrected by 5 % (2) and Italy by 2 % (3). No corrections were applied to Portugal and France.

For the financial year 2000 Greece has again seen its expenditure corrected by 5 % and Italy by 2 % (4). In the case of Spain the clearance of accounts procedure has not yet been finalised for this financial year. No corrections were applied to France and Portugal.

The financial impact of these corrections can be summarized as follows:

(per million euros) 1998 1999 2000 Greece 50,8 21,0 24,1 Spain 48,5 45,5 N/A Italy 9,1 12,5 13,0

For financial years 2001 to 2003 the clearance of accounts procedure is still ongoing concerning the relevant Member States, and appropriate financial corrections will be applied in due course.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy, OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.

(2) Commission Decision 2001/557/EC of 11 July 2001 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), OJ L 200, 25.7.2001 and Commission Decision 2003/536/EC of 22 July 2003 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) (Greece), OJ L 184, 23.7.2003, and Commission Decision 2001/137/EC of 5 February 2001 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), OJ L 50, 21.2.2001 and Commission Decision 2002/881/EC of 5 November 2002 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), OJ L 306, 8.11.2002 (Spain).

(3) Commission Decision 2002/523/EC of 28 June 2002 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), OJ L 170, 29.6.2002.

(4) Commission Decision 2002/881/EC of 5 November 2002 (Greece and Italy).