WRITTEN QUESTION E-0549/01

by Giovanni Pittella (PSE) and Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE) to the Commission

(27 February 2001)

Subject: Payment of aid to breeders of Podolica cattle

The breeding of Podolica cattle is today an important sector of the livestock industry in the Basilicata area and receives support under national and Community aid policies.

In some areas this activity is conducted in a proper and profitable manner, but in others it is having an adverse effect on the environment (while in the former case the aid is actually used for breeding purposes that is to say, meat production in the latter the activity is a front and is conducted almost exclusively for the purpose of obtaining the aid payments available). The Maratea area comes into the latter category.

The municipality of Maratea is home to a large number of low-quality Podolica cattle which are reared in breach of grazing laws (the grazing areas are mainly located on steep hilly terrain and as they move around the animals often dislodge stones, which fall onto the main roads lying below; the pastures in which ampelodesma grass (the Podolica breed's main foodstuff) grows are located only in areas where there has been a fire, which, subject to heavy penalties, may not be used for grazing for a period of two years; and makeshift gates and barbed-wire fences are widely used to prevent the animals from moving down into the valley).

The above activities are in breach of regional law. Nonetheless, the government, which uses forestry service personnel to patrol the area, continues to pay out aid despite the huge number of infringements recorded, and thus short-circuits the whole process.

This situation calls for swift action in the form of clear regulations making it impossible for breeders who infringe the grazing laws to receive aid and, in the longer term, a revision of the general framework for the payment of aid. In particular, the basic criterion (the number of animals that may be grazed in a given area) should be replaced by one which places greater responsibility on breeders, not least for protecting the mountain environment.

How does the Commission intend to set about tackling the above problems?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(19 April 2001)

The Commission and the Member States are currently engaged in implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 of 21 June 1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds(1) and Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations(2).

The first Regulation provides for aid for the structural development of Objective 1 regions, subject to certain restrictions, in particular of an environmental nature.

Under the second, agro-environmental measures provide for aid intended to encourage farmers to use production methods which preserve and improve the environment. Aid is granted per hectare but on condition that the number of animals on the area concerned does not exceed a limit compatible with safeguarding and improving the local environment. In order to receive aid, the recipient has to undertake to provide management which appreciably exceeds good farming practice and to keep to this obligation for a period of at least five years.

Therefore, the Community rules do not need to be changed but they must be properly enforced, on the basis of full and satisfactory application of good farming practice in the region. This will have to include rules on grazing in mountain areas so that the regional administration, in requesting approval of the 2000-2006 programme, undertakes to grant premiums only to stock farmers who abide by these rules.

The Commission has no power to act concerning the activities of forestry personnel or infringements of the regional laws but can suspend its part-financing of rural development programmes if its control bodies note an infringement of Community rules and of the commitments entered into by the national authorities and by the recipients of aid.

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999.

(2) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.