EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/440

(2004/C 78 E/0462)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2895/03

by Dana Scallon (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(29 September 2003)

Subject: Irish sheep farmers

How many Member States insist on the same stocking rate of sheep, for fenced pasture and adjoining commonly-owned unfenced hillside, within the one farm?

Did the Commission ask for the culling of 800 000 sheep for the sake of environmental protection of the hillsides in Ireland?

What number of sheep did the Commission ask to be culled from the hillsides in Ireland?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(4 November 2003)

The situation where a ‘Member State insists on the same stocking rate of sheep, for fenced pasture and adjoining commonly-own unfenced hillside, within the one farm’ does not seem to exist in the other Member States. A provision of the current Article 13 of the Commission Regulation (CE) No 445/2002 of 26 February 2002 (1) laying down conditions for commitments to extensify livestock farming states at point b) that ‘the livestock shall be distributed across the farm in such a way that the whole of the grazed area is maintained, thus avoiding both over-grazing and under-utilisation’.

The Commission did not specifically ask for a cull of 800 000 sheep as mentioned in the second and third part of the question but rather for cross compliance between the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (Agri-environmental scheme) and Sheep Headage Schemes as well as compliance with Union habitat protection requirements laid down in Directives 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (2) and 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna (3). On 13 June 2002, Ireland was condemned by the Court of Justice with regard to widespread vegetation loss and erosion linked to excessive sheep stocking levels in the west of Ireland (Case C-117/00). It is obliged to take measures to comply with this Court ruling as soon as possible. In order to address the problem of overgrazing of sheep on commonly owned areas (commonages) and resulting environmental damages in such sensitive areas, destocking measures were deemed necessary. Thus a Supplementary Measure A was approved by the Commission in 1998 under the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) to compensate farmers in those areas for following an Agri-environmental plan which would reduce sheep numbers to sustainable stocking density and which would have special conditions to allow for the regeneration of degraded areas. The Agri-environmental plan would conform to framework plans to be drawn up for each commonage.

While the commonage framework plans were defined, interim measures were taken in order to address the problem of overgrazing in six western counties where the environmental damages were more serious. This required the immediate 30 % reduction in sheep number and some 140 000 sheep were permanently removed during the period November/December 1998 from the commonages in these counties. Such a cross compliance measure was put in place before 1998 payments of Sheep Headage Schemes. Payments of 1999 and 2000 sheep headage to farmers was limited to the number applied for subject to an overall ceiling of 70 % of the 1998 entitlement to the scheme.

Full cross-compliance was introduced with effect from 2001. It is a condition of the 2001 headage schemes that farmers with commonage land must participate in an approved REPs plan (including measure A) or a national plan (State Aid scheme approved by the Commission in September 2003) before payment can be made under the Ewe Premium and less favoured areas (LFAs) Compensatory Allowances schemes. Information concerning the reduction of number of sheep due to cross compliance since 2001 is not available.

(1) Commission Regulation (EC) No 445/2002 of 26 February 2002 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), OJ L 74, 15.3.2002.

(2) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(3) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.