WRITTEN QUESTION E-2433/03 by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Quota for sugar production in the autonomous region of the Azores.
Date: 2003-07-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Azores, agricultural production, agro-industry, production quota, sugar, supply, support policy

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/21

Reply

(8 March 2004)

The Honourable Member is referred to the joint reply given by the Council to Questions P-3822/02
and E-3843/02. Furthermore, the Council would remind the Honourable Member that it cannot intervene
in actual asylum application cases in the Member States.

The Council can, however, inform the Honourable Member that in the light of the latest information
available to it, Mr Al Sahri was released conditionally on 13 October this year.

(2004/C 84 E/0023)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2433/03

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(22 July 2003)

Subject: Quota for sugar production in the autonomous region of the Azores

The Azorean agricultural company Sinaga SA, which produces beet sugar in the outermost region of the
Azores, is experiencing problems owing to the growing difficulties being encountered with the reduction
in the production quota being made at administrative level. The Treaty concerning Portugal’s accession to
the European Union set sugar production for the Azores at 20 000 tonnes (quotas A + B), for either a beet
processing undertaking or a refinery, stipulating that the remaining amount would be ‘up to a quantity
limit expressed in white sugar equal to the difference between the actual production achieved within the
framework of quotas A and B and 20 000 tonnes’.

However, the Azores were removed from this scheme under Council Regulation (EC) No 1101/95 (1), when
they lost the right to process 20 000 tonnes of sugar and instead produced only 10 000 tonnes. Now,
according to Sinaga, the Commission is again seeking by administrative means to reduce the refining of
white sugar, which is to be set at 6 500 tonnes/year in the autonomous region of the Azores, even though
the production of sugar from beet is not sufficient to reach the limit of 10 000 tonnes of white sugar, as
defined under Poseima, a situation which would threaten the company’s viability. It might also be pointed
out that Sinaga purchases raw sugar from Germany (C quota sugar).

The Commission:

1. What measures will it take to guarantee Sinaga’s continuing operation, given its importance for the

development of the outermost region of the Azores?

2. Will recognition be given to the right of the autonomous region of the Azores to produce white sugar
up to an amount of 10 000 tonnes/year, under the conditions laid down under Poseima, and will it
therefore be authorised to import a further 2 500 tonnes of raw sugar this year, given that beet
production will amount to only around 1 000 tonnes?

3. Will it be possible for the autonomous region of the Azores to sell its production on traditional

markets, i.e. to export around 4 000 tonnes of white sugar?

(1) OJ L 110, 17.5.1995, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(17 September 2003)

The Commission takes the view that

for the
1.
agricultural economy of the Azores. Beet production is traditional in the Azores and the existence of beet
processing facilities is a requirement for it to be marketed.

the sugar industry is important

the survival of

Recognising this, the Commission, whether by taking action on its own or proposing specific measures to
the Council, has acted to ensure the continued existence of beet and sugar production in the Azores.

C 84 E/22

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Over the last few years the Commission has taken the following action:

(cid:1) in 1997 it increased the aid for Sinaga for processing Azorean beet into sugar from EUR 100 to

EUR 270/tonne;

(cid:1) in 2000 it proposed to the Council a 66 % increase in the aid for land under sugar beet from EUR 500
to EUR 800/hectare. The Council adopted the Commission’s proposal in Regulation (EC) No 1453/
2001 (1).

The Commission encourages the sugar sector in the Azores by means of measures that are quite
2.
exceptional compared with the mechanisms applied in the rest of the Community under the common
market organisation for sugar. In particular, beet growers and the Azorean sugar company are allowed to
produce up to 9 953 tonnes of sugar per year from Azorean beet, and the sugar company is allowed to
refine raw beet sugar purchased with a refund or on the world market under the specific supply
arrangements, within the limits of the consumption needs of the Azores, which are currently estimated at
6 500 tonnes per year.

The Commission deeply regrets the fact that, despite its efforts in the sector, the production of sugar from
Azorean beet was only 700 tonnes in 2002.

3.

Sugar produced from Azorean beet may be marketed freely on markets outside the Azores.

for which Sinaga is supplied under the specific supply
By contrast, sugar refined in the Azores,
arrangements, is intended to meet the requirements of the Azores themselves and may not be exported or
shipped from the Azores, with the exception of traditional quantities. The Court of Justice recently ruled
on the concept of
the
Commission’s approach in considering traditional shipments or exports to be the average trade flows
over the three years preceding the entry into force of the Poseima regime in 1992, i.e. 1989, 1990 and
1991. The Court of Justice ruled that the shipments had to be ‘ongoing, regular and significant ’… ‘at the
time that the Poseima Programme was implemented’ and that ‘Sporadic and small-scale shipments made in
the past cannot satisfy those requirements’.

It confirmed the correctness of

‘traditional quantities’

in case C-282/00.

As regards the future development of the Community sugar sector,
in the last quarter of 2003 the
Commission will present a communication on the reform of the common market organisation for the
sector.
take account of the special situation regarding sugar
production in the outermost regions, so that the new balance of production and supply in the European
Union does not entail any deterioration for the regions concerned.

the Commission will

In its initiatives,

Also, the support instruments for processing businesses in the outermost regions, including the Azores,
will be reviewed in the report on an overall strategy for sustainable development in the outermost regions
which the Commission must adopt by the end of 2003.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 1453/2001 of 28 June 2001 introducing specific measures for certain agricultural
products for the Azores and Madeira and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1600/92 (Poseima), OJ L 198, 21.7.2001.

(2004/C 84 E/0024)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2434/03

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(22 July 2003)

Subject: Penalisation of Portuguese farmers

At a recent meeting with milk producers from northern Portugal I was confronted with reports of the
unjust treatment of Portuguese farmers who had exceeded the milk quota up to the end of March 2003.

These farmers have received penalties, whilst in Italy it has just been announced that an agreement has
been approved to resolve the problem of Italian farmers in the same situation.