EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/703

(2004/C 78 E/0750)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0557/03

by Anne Van Lancker (PSE) to the Commission

(20 February 2003)

Subject: Regulations governing milk quotas in cross-border farms

A Belgian farmer is running a dairy farm in Meer-Hoogstraten (Belgium) which has a quota of 397 727 litres of milk with a fat content of 3,76 % (Producer No 00113020140). His wife wishes to take over the farm of her mother and stepfather in Baarle Nassau (Netherlands) which has a quota of 307 164 litres of milk with a 4,04 % fat content (COS registration number 66244). The farms are 5 km apart on either side of the border. The husband's farm is poorly parcelled (less than 3 ha per parcel) and is situated in a sensitive surface water protection area (pursuant to the nitrates directive). The wife's future farm is situated in an area of consolidated land parcels, with farmhouse, of 40 ha.

In accordance with the findings in the Ballmann judgment (1), the Belgian farmer wishes to produce his milk quota on the farm in Castelre — Baarle Nassau. He is retaining his farm and adjoining land in Meer-Hoogstraten and will continue to supply his milk to a Belgian purchaser. His wife's future farm will supply its milk to a purchaser in the Netherlands.

The Belgian quota remains tied to the Belgian producer (the husband) and to the Belgian parcels of land. It therefore remains a Belgian quota. The Belgian regulations do not expressly state that a milk production unit must be situated in Belgium. The Belgian regulations define a ‘milk production unit’ as a complex of functionally connected facilities. Nowhere is this restricted to a geographical area on Belgian soil.

Is this arrangement compatible with European regulations? What provisions do the two farms have to comply with? Is the Belgian purchaser permitted to keep milk in the tank on the husband's farm in Castelre — Baarle Nassau (NL) or must he transport the milk tank himself to the farm in Meer-Hoogstraten (B)?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(17 March 2003)

The Commission must regretfully inform the Honourable Member that the arrangement envisaged is not permissible. Article 9 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3950/92 of 28 December 1992 establishing an additional levy in the milk and milk products sector (2) defines producer as a natural or legal person or group of natural or legal persons farming a holding within the geographical territory of a Member State and selling milk or other milk products direct to the consumer and/or supplying purchasers and holding as all production units operated by a single producer and located within the geographical territory of a Member State. In both cases ‘geographical territory of a Member State’ was deliberately introduced by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1560/93 of 14 June 1993 (3) in order to prevent unmanageable situations in administration of the quotas.

The findings in the Ballmann case are not relevant. It does not deal with cross-border questions and moreover refers to the old milk quota system introduced by Regulation (EEC) No 857/84 (4).

Thus the quantities of milk produced on the two holdings must be separately delivered in Belgium and the Netherlands and entered against the appropriate country's milk quota.

(1) Case C-341/89, Ballmann v. Hauptzollamt Osnabrück.

(2) OJ L 405, 31.12.1992.

(3) Council Regulation (EEC) No 1560/93 of 14 June 1993 amending Regulation (EEC) No 3950/92 establishing an additional levy in the milk and milk products sector, OJ L 154, 25.6.1993.

(4) Council Regulation (EEC) No 857/84 of 31 March 1984 adopting general rules for application of the levy referred to in Article 5c of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 in the milk and milk products sector, OJ L 90, 1.4.1984.