WRITTEN QUESTION E-2463/01 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Spanish Government policy on beef and dairy farms and its impact on Galicia.
Date: 2001-09-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, Galicia, Spain, aid to agriculture, cattle, dairy production, regional development

C 93 E/136

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.4.2002

(2002/C 93 E/163)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2463/01

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 September 2001)

Subject: Spanish Government policy on beef and dairy farms and its impact on Galicia

The Spanish Government has announced the launching of a programme for beef and dairy farms, from
which an essential part of the Galician farming sector, which provides over a third of all Spanish milk,
would be excluded. Trade unions in the farming sector claim that of the 77 660 beef and dairy farms in
Galicia, 53 258 would be excluded from the aid provided under the programme; this means that 78.76 %
of the 37 625 of these farms dedicated to milk production would suffer the same fate. The application of
the programme would create a crisis which would have a negative impact on a highly sensitive section of
Galicia’s population, cutting off at the root any possibility of survival and modernisation of many small
farms, whose inadequate allocated milk quota constitutes the sole obstacle to their development. The
Spanish Government programme, which claims to meet EU rules, would run contrary to the multi-purpose
approach to be imposed on European agriculture in place of the production-driven trends which have
hitherto prevailed, since within Galician farming, small farms are part of a way of life in which agricultural
production co-exists with work in other economic sectors undertaken by members of the same family unit.
The Galician Government is adopting a deplorable ‘Malthusian’ attitude, and is prepared to support the
Spanish Central Government’s programme, with the Galician Minister for Agriculture himself claiming that
small farms are doomed by market forces. In view of the foregoing, does the Commission believe that the
Spanish Government’s programme corresponds to the Commission’s guidelines, at a time when European
agriculture is radically changing direction in favour of a more ecological and diversified approach
encouraging regional development, which is exactly what Galicia’s agriculture and economy require?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(29 October 2001)

The Commission is unaware of the programme referred to by the Honourable Member.

In Spain and especially Galicia, the Commission is making a positive contribution through various regional
development programmes under the Structural Funds. A number of agricultural and rural development
programmes are benefiting from Community support.

None of these programmes includes measures designed to reduce investments in agricultural holdings for
the rearing of livestock.

The Commission would suggest, however, that the Honourable Member provide further information that
would enable it, where necessary, to identify the programme referred to.

(2002/C 93 E/164)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2474/01

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 September 2001)

Subject: Aircraft for the Commission

According to rumours published in the press in June this year by the Sun newspaper and taken up by Il
Foglio in Italy, the Commission was seeking to hire two luxury jet aircraft.

Can the Commission say whether these reports are true and, if so, what essential operational requirements
led it to take this decision and how much it cost the European taxpayer?