WRITTEN QUESTION E-0034/02 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Cut in support for oilseeds.
Date: 2002-01-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: aid per hectare, aid system, common agricultural policy, financial loss, genetically modified organism, oil crop, support policy

4.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 160 E/171

(2002/C 160 E/211)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0033/02

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(23 January 2002)

Subject: Intra-EU foreign direct investment

Will the Commission provide figures for the euro-area and for the non-euro-area Member States on a
comparable basis to those given for the European Union for intra-EU foreign direct investment (in graph
12) of the report from the Commission ‘Economic Reform: Report on the functioning of Community
product and capital markets’ (1)?

(1) COM(2001) 736 final.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(18 March 2002)

Table 1 presenting data on the value in current prices of foreign direct flows from different sources to
various targets (particularly the eurozone and non-eurozone) between 1996 and 2000 is sent direct to the
Honourable Member and to the Parliament’s Secretariat. The eurozone and the non-eurozone Member
States are identified either as source or target in order to arrive at statistics comparable to those presented
in graph 12 of the report from the Commission ‘Economic Reform: Report on the functioning of
Community product and capital markets’ (1).

The figures are arrived at by making the following assumptions:

1.

2.

3.

the figures are Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and exclude reinvested earnings (this is the
standard approach Eurostat uses in its annual reports on foreign direct investment and in the Cardiff
Report);

the rest of the world here means the world beyond the 15 Member States;

for consistency, almost all figures given are outflows recorded from the source investor. Only in the
case of FDI flows from the rest of the world are inflows used as recorded by the target;

4.

the eurozone here always includes Greece, even though it joined later.

Table 2, presenting the same data in index form, setting 1996 = 100, is also sent direct to the Honourable
Member and to the Parliament’s Secretariat.

(1) COM(2001) 736 final.

(2002/C 160 E/212)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0034/02

by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(23 January 2002)

Subject: Cut in support for oilseeds

The Commissioner responsible for agriculture and fisheries, Franz Fischler, recently announced that, as
provided for during the CAP reform, aid paid for oilseeds would be brought into line with that for cereals,
which means a 40 % cut in support for rape and sunflower seeds and soya beans.

C 160 E/172

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

4.7.2002

In Italy, a cut of this magnitude in Community aid would result in a reduction of between 30 and 60 % in
oilseed growing, with the attendant risk of an environment-friendly farming method (crop rotation)
gradually disappearing. Furthermore, the cut is badly timed, given that the ban on meat and bonemeal has
generated a strong demand from livestock farmers for vegetable-protein feedingstuffs. The end result would
be an increase in imports of such feedingstuffs, many of which would probably come from genetically-
modified crops.

Given the above, would the Commission not agree that there is a real risk of meat and bonemeal

1.
simply being replaced by genetically-modified products of doubtful origin?

Does it have any idea of the huge financial losses which such a cut in aid would entail for Italian,

2.
Portuguese, Spanish and French farmers?

3. Would it not agree that economic measures of this kind are a hindrance to efforts to maintain
product quality?

Is it aware of the fact that a move away in the production of oilseeds and protein seeds will lead to

4.
an increase in cereals production and, thereby, cereals quotas being overshot?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(14 February 2002)

At the Council’s request the Commission in March 2001 analysed on supply and demand for

1.
protein-rich plants in the Union following the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis (1).

It found that there was no major problem over replacing protein from animal meals by plant protein. The
best source of plant protein for this purpose was soya cake. The additional quantities needed can be
imported without infringing existing Community and international law. The genetically modified varieties
of soya in question are authorised under Council Directive 90/220/CEE of 23 April 1990 on deliberate
release into the environment of genetically modified organisms (2).

2. and 3.
The decision that from the 2001/2002 marketing year aid on oilseeds should be equal to that
on cereals (€ 63/t) was taken at the Berlin European Summit in 1999. It was one of the main planks of the
Agenda 2000 reform for achieving greater orientation to the market.

Moreover equalisation of the aid frees farmers from the Blair House Agreement constraints on the
maximum area for which a specific oilseed aid can be given.

Nor does it involve any modification of the quality standards that farmers must meet if they are to receive
Community area-linked aid. For oilseeds this is granted only on varieties with low glucosinolate and erucic
acid contents.

4.
Any replacement of oilseeds by cereals would have no impact on base area overshoots. These are
calculated for the entire arable crop area on which area-linked aid is given, i.e. the area sown to cereals,
oilseeds, protein crops, flax and hemp plus the area taken out of production in set-aside.

(1) COM(2001) 148/final/2.
(2) OJ L 117, 8.5.1990.