WRITTEN QUESTION E-1790/01

by Fernando Fernández Martín (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 June 2001)

Subject: Traditional ACP suppliers of bananas

As a result of the agreements relating to the banana import scheme concluded, firstly, between the European Union and the United States of America and, secondly, between the European Union and Ecuador, an additional 100 000 tonnes of dollar bananas will be imported into the Community as from 1 July 2002.

That new scheme increases the need for traditional ACP banana suppliers rapidly to improve their market competitiveness.

In 1999, the European Union adopted technical and financial assistance measures to support traditional ACP suppliers of bananas (Council Regulation (EC) No 856/1999(1) and Commission Regulation (EC) 1609/1999(2)) with the specific aim of improving their competitiveness and facilitating the transition towards the liberalisation of the market scheduled for 2006.

To date, those measures have not been implemented, and this is jeopardising the efforts being made by our ACP partners to adapt to the new market conditions.

Can the Commission explain the reasons for the delay and indicate the measures which it intends to take in order to make up the leeway and enable the aid to be disbursed?

(1) OJ L 108, 27.4.1999, p. 2.

(2) OJ L 190, 23.7.1999, p. 14.

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(7 November 2001)

In the second phase of the new banana import scheme (and until 1 January 2006), 100 000 tonnes will be transferred from tariff quota C to tariff quota B. The new quota C will be reserved exclusively for producers in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, and adoption of the new Regulation(1) will be conditional on the World Trade Organisation authorising a derogation from Article XIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), since under the new Regulation a tariff quota of bananas reserved exclusively for ACP producers would be maintained until January 2006, which conflicts with Article XIII of the GATT.

To date Council Regulation (EC) No 856/1999 of 22 April 1999 establishing a special framework of assistance for traditional ACP suppliers of bananas(2) and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1609/1999 of 22 July 1999(3) laying down the detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 856/1999 have been implemented as follows:

- In its 1999 budget, on budget line B7-8710, Assistance to ACP banana producers, the Commission reserved 45 million euros for financing projects relating to the special framework of assistance for traditional ACP suppliers of bananas established by the Regulations cited above. The amounts allocated in the 2000 and 2001 budgets were 44 475 million and 44 million respectively. In the preliminary draft budget for 2002 the provisional allocation is 45 million.

- Under the 1999 budget, project financing agreements were signed for a total of 44,5 million with nine of the 12 countries listed in the Regulations as traditional ACP suppliers of bananas. Two of the others (Madagascar and Somalia) submitted neither projects nor long-term strategies and so under the rules did not qualify to benefit from the system. Their allocations were shared out among the others. No agreement could be signed with the twelfth, Cape Verde, because of administrative delays. Its individual allocation of 0,5 million was therefore lost. Overall, the nine countries that signed financing agreements used 77 % of the funds to make their bananas more competitive and 23 % to diversify.

- Under the 2000 budget there were 10 agreements for a total of 44 075 million. Madagascar and Somalia were again excluded for the same reasons and their appropriations were re-distributed among the others, apart from 400 000 which was used to finance a project-monitoring contract. Cape Verde was included this time and was even partially compensated for the loss of its 1999 funding. Overall, 73 % of the funding allocated under the 10 agreements was used to increase the competitiveness of bananas and 27 % to diversify.

- The new projects for 2001 are still at being appraised.

A total of 3 345 000 has been disbursed so far. This figure should be considered in the light of the fact that the first agreements were not signed by the Commission until August 2000 and were signed by the beneficiaries between September and February 2000. Conclusion of these agreements was held up by a large number of legal problems. Since a new 10-year programme was involved, with 12 beneficiaries and so, potentially, 120 agreements, the Commission had to develop a system that was as simple and harmonised as current legislation permitted. From the point of view of the signatory countries, the status of the end beneficiaries varied widely from one country to another, from a single state-owned enterprise in Surinam to thousands of small family farms in the Windward Islands

(1) COM(2000) 477 final.

(2) OJ L 108, 27.4.1999.

(3) OJ L 190, 23.7.1999.