WRITTEN QUESTION P-2264/00 by Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE) to the Commission. Right to market table grapes included, and approved for cultivation, in the catalogue of national varieties in Italy in accordance with Community rules.
Date: 2000-06-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: agricultural production, grape, marketing standard, patent law

18.4.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 113 E/77

(2001/C 113 E/075)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2255/00

by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Council

(11 July 2000)

Subject: Action to support the euro

Following the Ecofin meeting of 8 May 2000, the French Finance Minister, Laurent Fabius, commented
that (cid:145)concrete action(cid:146) could be taken to boost the euro.

It was reported that the Finance Ministers agreed that an (cid:145)instrument of intervention exists, and is
available(cid:146), referring to the reserves of the European System of Central Banks.

Could the Council indicate which instruments could be invoked to support the euro, the circumstances
under which they could be invoked, and who would be responsible for taking such a decision?

Reply

(30 November 2000)

The ultimate behaviour of the euro depends primarily on the trend in the basic parameters of the euro
area economy. The Member States can have a lasting influence on the rate of the European currency by
acting on those foundations. The Member States and the Community have therefore undertaken to take
concrete measures to bolster the credibility of current economic policy with a view to positioning the
economy on a sustained, higher and non-inflationary growth and employment path. The broad economic
policy guidelines for 2000 recently adopted by the Council set forth concrete recommendations specific to
each country. More generally, they called upon Member States participating in the euro to make sustained
efforts to speed up fiscal consolidation and to implement the necessary structural reforms. In that context
the Member States were called upon to achieve budgetary positions close to balance or in surplus more
rapidly than envisaged by the stability and convergence programmes and, as a general rule, in the course
of 2001. With a view to ensuring the efficiency of that policy the Eurogroup would carry out, and if need
be strengthen, continuous monitoring of developments in the budget policies of Member States participat-
ing in the euro.

Direct intervention in the exchange market obviously remains an available instrument for influencing euro
rates which could be used by the ECB. If intervention were to take place, the foreign reserves centralised in
the ECB would be used. The bulk of the ECB(cid:146)s balance sheet assets is made up of those reserves (see the
ECB(cid:146)s 1999 annual report).

At its meeting on 8 May 2000 the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 1010/2000, enabling the ECB, if
necessary, to call for further foreign reserve assets from the national central banks beyond the limit set in
Article 30(1) of the Statute, up to an amount equivalent to an additional EUR 50 thousand million.

(2001/C 113 E/076)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2264/00

by Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE) to the Commission

(29 June 2000)

Subject: Right to market table grapes included, and approved for cultivation, in the catalogue of national

varieties in Italy in accordance with Community rules

A number of producers of seedless grapes in southern Italy, and particularly producers of the Sugraone
variety (which has been duly entered and approved for cultivation in the catalogue of national varieties in
Italy) are concerned by the behaviour of certain Community importers who refuse to purchase Sugraone
grapes unless the producer can prove he has paid production royalties to an American company that
claims to have patent rights to the variety in question (although under a different name) that also apply
when the product is marketed.

C 113 E/78

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.4.2001

Could the Commission answer the following questions, with a view to preventing unfair charges and
distortions of the internal market:

1. Can producers lawfully and freely market Sugraone grapes, without being subject to any restrictions
by potential Community purchasers in terms of proving that they have paid production royalties?

2. Does the obligation to pay royalties at the production and marketing stage (and the requirement for
purchasers to check that such royalties have been paid) apply solely to the marketing of varieties of
table grapes that have been patented and have registered names and trademarks, or do such
obligations also apply to producers marketing named varieties of table grapes, such as Sugraone
grapes, which are included, and approved for cultivation, in the catalogue of national varieties in Italy
in accordance with Community rules?

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(19 September 2000)

The registration of a variety in the Italian national catalogue of varieties does not mean that it is not also
protected under the Community or national rules on new plant varieties. To answer the questions raised, it
is necessary to know the exact nature and the scope of the protection from which the variety of table
grape mentioned benefits, which the question does not specify.

If the variety mentioned (Sugraone) is not the subject of Community protection of new plant varieties, as
provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 on Community plant variety
rights (1), which is the responsibility of the Community Plant Variety Office, it may be that it is the subject
of protection of the same type at Italian national level, which the Honourable Member will be able to
check with the Italian authorities dealing with new plant varieties.

As an indication, the scope of the Community protection of new plant varieties provided by Regulation
(EC) No 2100/94 extends to the harvested material of the variety, including fruit, if it was obtained by the
unauthorised use of variety constituents of the protected variety. Perhaps, therefore, purchasers wish to
make sure that the fruit that they market was produced by authorised propagating material of the
protected variety.

The above protection applies as much to products marketed under a registered trademark as to products
resulting from the same variety which are marketed under other non-protected trade descriptions.
However, in all cases, Commission Regulation (EC) No 2789/1999 of 22 December 1999 laying down
the marketing standard for table grapes (2) stipulates that packages have to show, in any event, the name of
the variety.

(1) OJ L 227, 1.9.1994.
(2) OJ L 336, 29.12.1999.

(2001/C 113 E/077)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2278/00

by Monica Frassoni (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

Subject: Burgo paper mill incinerator, Mantua

(7 July 2000)

The Burgo paper mill, which is situated in the immediate vicinity of Mantua, is about to start operating an
industrial waste incinerator (1), for the construction of which the Lombardy region granted approval
(DGR No 30490 of 1 August 1997) (2). During its construction, Burgo S.p.A made various changes to
the plans which resulted in the facility being changed from an incineration plant with energy recovery to
an on-land incineration plant with prior temporary storage. This meant that the project had to go through
a second administrative approval process, which culminated in the region granting approval (DGR No VI/
49445 of 7 April 2000) (3). On both occasions, however, the regional authorities granted approval without