WRITTEN QUESTION E-0684/03 by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission. Andalucía's Integrated Operating Programme and Community Funds.
Date: 2003-03-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Andalusia, EU aid, fund (EU), integrated development programme, operational programme, project management

C 222 E/226

Official Journal of the European Union

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18.9.2003

Can the Commission therefore say why the draft CAP reform does not set aside a specific chapter

1.
devoted to young farmers?

2. Whether it is possible to incorporate in the draft reform an amendment to update Article 8 of
Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999, proposing at least a 100 % increase in the setting-up aid, raising it to
EUR 50 000?

3. Whether it is possible to incorporate in the draft reform an amendment to increase aid as a
percentage of the volume of investment from 45 % and 55 % to 65 % and 75 % respectively for young
farmers in lowland and mountain areas?

4. Whether it is possible to incorporate in the draft reform an amendment to suspend the system of
State aids as regards direct aid to young farmers from the Member States and regional authorities?

(1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 80.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(3 April 2003)

Chapter II of Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 (1) is concerned solely with young farmers and the
1.
Commission must point out that substantial improvements have already been made under Agenda 2000.

First, the maximum eligible amount of both the setting-up premium and the interest subsidy were raised
by 66 % from EUR 15 000 to EUR 25 000. Second, the maximum aid rate for farm investments can be
raised by 5 percentage points for young farmers’
five years following
establishment on the farm. Third,
the maximum eligible early retirement aid, a measure indirectly
benefiting young farmers by encouraging release of agricultural land, was raised by 50 % from EUR 10 000
to EUR 15 000 and Member States have the option of
this measure to the
establishment of young farmers.

investments during the first

linking their use of

2.
Thus there has been a considerable increase in aid from the previous to the present programming
period. Moreover, in the case of authorised rural development measures, Article 52 of Regulation (EC)
No 1257/1999 allows the Member States to provide additional financing which they must notify to the
Commission for approval by including it in the rural development programmes.

3.
Article 51(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 allows aid for certain types of farm investment to
exceed the percentages set earlier in the Regulation. Thus Member States provide further finance by
including in their development plans higher aid rates for young farmers for certain types of investment.

The Commission does not envisage any suspension of the system of State aid rules, which would

4.
result in distortion of competition between farmers in different Member States.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance

and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations (cid:1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.

(2003/C 222 E/256)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0684/03

by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission

(7 March 2003)

Subject: Andalucía’s Integrated Operating Programme and Community Funds

The Spanish Government has programmed a total of Euros 827 million in funds for measure 3,6 of
Andalucía’s Integrated Operating Programme,‘Protection and regeneration of the natural environment’
(devoted to forestry activities, biodiversity and natural species). This figure is broken down into Euros
620 million ERDF aid and Euros 270 of national co-funding, a requirement which reflects the express

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Official Journal of the European Union

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undertaking given when the programming was being drawn up, and is stated in the programme itself.
Furthermore, EUR 118 million funding is earmarked for forestry, with EAGGF aid (measure 3,9 of the
Programme). However, the latest meeting of the Programme’s Monitoring Committee (Córdoba, June 2002)
revealed a low level of
the measure in question compared with the approved
programming, responsibility for which falls directly on the Ministry for the Environment.

implementation of

Given that:

(cid:1) Regulation (EC) 1260/1991 (1), lays down that if the required implementation levels are not reached,

the scheduled Community aid could actually be cancelled,

(cid:1) whereas

the Andalucían autonomous community’s Environment Ministry has approached the
Commission (by letter of 12 September 2002 addressed to the DG for Regional Policy), requesting it
to mediate in the affair, and investigate the possibility of assigning the funds directly to the Junta de
Andalucía,

(cid:1) the non-allocation of the funds by the Spanish Government is prejudicing the good environmental

governance of Andalucía, which is an Objective 1 region,

(cid:1) in a resolution on regional policy and structural fund management (2) (paragraphs 2 and 12), the
European Parliament pointed out that ‘funding should be channelled as directly and efficiently as
possible to the regions and local communities’, regretted that ‘the policy of control by central
government
fund policies in the regions’ and
considered that ‘the role of the central administration in Member States should not be one of
domination but of coordination, support and assistance and providing a legality audit’.

is hampering the implementation of structural

Given what the DG for Regional Policy wrote on 1 October 2002, reference 110215, has the Commission
received any proposal from the Andalucían Operating Programme 2000-2006’s management authority
which would resolve the implementation problems affecting the Programme’s measure 3.6, the bulk of
which is currently assigned to the Ministry of the Environment? Can the Commission state what stage has
been reached in considering the proposal made to the Commission by the Junta de Andalucía’s Ministry of
the Environment?

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999, p. 1.
(2) OJ C 284 E, 21.11.2002, p. 325.

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(9 April 2003)

The Commission has been aware of the situation to which the Honourable Member refers since it was
raised at the meeting of the Monitoring Committee for the Andalusia integrated operational programme
held in Cordoba on 7 June 2002. Since then it has been seeking,
in partnership with the Spanish
authorities, to find an appropriate solution.

At the annual meetings on the management of the programmes, held in Madrid on 16 and 17 January
2003, and following several approaches by the Commission, the managing authority stated that the
Ministry of the Environment, the main final beneficiary of these measures, had revised its investment
programming and that it would ensure implementation of the annual payments for 2000 and 2001 for the
measures 3,6 and 3,9 concerned as provided for in the programme.

The Commission can assure the Honourable Member that it is willing to consider as quickly as possible
any measure notified to it by the managing authority.