WRITTEN QUESTION E-0240/97 by Gastone Parigi (NI) and Amedeo Amadeo (NI) to the Council (13 February 1997)

Subject: Request for deferred payment of milk quota fines

The establishment of quotas for Community milk production for the purposes of price support is a valid and valuable system, provided that its organization does not create large-scale imbalances between production potential and the internal consumption of the individual Member States. The fines imposed when milk quotas are exceeded are objectively fair only if they are accompanied by a specific, direct and conscious sense of responsibility regarding the infringement.

In Italy the exceeding of quotas by a substantial number of farmers was due not to deliberate fraud on their part but to:

1. the foolishness of an Italian minister who at the time and in the context of the Community was only capable of negotiating a quota equivalent to little more than half Italy's internal consumption, thereby condemning Italy to being a net importer of milk, to the advantage of Germany, France and the Netherlands, who obtained a quota far higher than their own consumption;

2. the contradictory nature of successive Italian laws which, combined with the notorious superficiality or, what is worse, bad faith of the trade unions and workers' organizations and the state of confusion which has long prevailed in the public authorities in the sector, led many farmers astray, by encouraging them on the one hand to produce more and more and, on the other, informing them of the quantitative restrictions only when the quotas had been exceeded; not only this, but also by creating and encouraging the disgraceful trading of 'paper quotas' and providing incentives for imports of milk at ridiculously low prices and not actually of Community origin.

In view of this situation, will the Council consider whether it would be appropriate not to waive the fines but to extend the deadline for payment, provided that in the meantime the degree of responsibility shared by the authorities and by the trade unions involved in the matter is established?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-0240/97 and E-0282/97 (5 June 1997)

At the Italian delegation's request, the Council has twice discussed the future of the Community milk regime and the specific problem of milk quotas, enabling all the Member States and the Commission to adopt positions on the approach to be followed in the subsequent examination of the question. In this connection the Council was informed of the difficult situation of the milk sector in Italy, particularly the problems raised by milk quota fines and the important decisions taken by the Italian Government. Various adjustments of milk quotas were requested.

The importance attached to the future of the milk regime, given that the present arrangements are to lapse in the year 2000, was stressed.

The question of the future of milk policy and milk quotas will be examined in a wider context in accordance with the following timetable: submission by the Commission of a report based on an analysis of the market situation; examination of the future of the COM in milk products - on the basis of that report in particular - at the informal Council meeting to be held in Middelburg in May; subsequent submission of formal Commission proposals.

As regards the more specific question of an extension of the deadline for payment of the fines imposed on Itlay for exceeding the milk quotas, this falls within the Commission's field of competence.