WRITTEN QUESTION E-2495/03 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Common agriculture policy.
Date: 2003-07-25
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: common agricultural policy, consumer price, consumer protection, farm price support, farm prices, impact study, world market price

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/119

The impact of the latest CAP reform agreement is currently being investigated by the Commission in
1.
view of publication in the next few months. However, previous analyses have shown that the introduction
of a single payment based on historical entitlements is expected to have moderate impact on income of
Union farmers, as the expected reduction in production would be counterbalanced by higher producer
prices. In the case of a livestock oriented region like Galicia one might expect similar results.

2.
The Commission is well aware of the importance of the milk sector for a region like Galicia, which
concentrates more than 50 % of Spanish milk producers, representing more than 30 % of Spanish milk
production. The Commission considers that the latest CAP reform offers a clear,
long term planning
framework for their business decisions, allowing them to carefully evaluate the restructuring needs in view
of future market demands. Decoupling aids from actual milk production is expected to have a moderate
impact compared to other sectors, as the milk quotas system, which validity has been prolonged until
2015, will continue to play a role in supply control.

3.
As already mentioned, in the next few months the Commission will publish an impact analysis of the
CAP reform as agreed at the June Luxembourg Agricultural Council. This report will comprise two internal
studies, the first one analysing the impact on the current Member States and a second one studying the
impact on and enlarged Union over the medium term (2003-2010).

The reduction of rural population is a generalised phenomenon that takes place in most industrialised
countries. Over the past decades the CAP has provided tools to fight this trend, recognising the beneficial
role of agriculture for the survival of rural communities. With the latest CAP reform, an enhanced rural
development package has been introduced, which includes a number of new or reinforced measures that
could be useful for Galician agriculture, during the transition to the new economic conditions expected.

(2004/C 78 E/0120)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2495/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(25 July 2003)

Subject: Common agriculture policy

Will the Commission estimate, on the basis of a typical basket of food purchases in each Member State for
a typical household, the additional cost paid by consumers as a result of farm support prices compared
with a situation where all aid was untied to production and world market prices applied? Will the
Commission also cite other estimates from other researchers for one or more Member States of a similar
calculation?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(11 September 2003)

The Commission is not aware of any such specific calculation made either by single researchers or
international organisations. This is mainly due to the fact that such estimates are too problematic to be
considered enough reliable from an economic point of view. The Commission recognises that for a certain
number of food products Union consumers pay a higher price than if they would buy them at world
market price. However, keeping aside the question of the existence of a perfectly functioning and efficient
world market (cid:1) and then of a world price (cid:1) it should be mentioned that this price gap is only slightly
higher than for the whole Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. It
should also not be ignored that support prices for the main agricultural products in the Union have
sharply fallen since 1992 (45 % for cereals and 35 % for beef) and that the current Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP) reform is continuing in the same direction.

C 78 E/120

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

There are many reasons that explain a slightly higher consumer price in the Union for some food
products:

(cid:1) Requirements of Union consumers concerning diversity,

freshness, quality and food safety are

extremely high,

(cid:1) Union food producers face higher wage, social and energy costs than most of their competitors,

(cid:1) The prices paid by consumers also reflect the slightly higher prices of agricultural products paid to
farmers in the Union, which are mainly linked to the specific economic, social, structural and
environmental conditions faced by Union farmers.

However, all these considerations are based on the assumption that world prices would not substantially
increase following a full liberalisation of agricultural trade, which is totally unrealistic. In addition, it should
be stressed that the basic agricultural products only represent some 20 % of the value of the food products
purchased by the consumers.

(2004/C 78 E/0121)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2497/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(25 July 2003)

Subject: Foreign direct investment

Will the Commission list the different figures produced by different international organisations (such as
Eurostat and also the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and Member States for
foreign direct investment, and will it clarify any differences in definitions that might lead to discrepancies
in the figures?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(12 September 2003)

Section 1 (of the annexes sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat) provides a
comparison between FDI data published by Eurostat and by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
(OECD). Section 2 (of the annexes sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat)
provides the same comparison for the European Central Bank (ECB). Section 3 is about national data
published by the Member States. A summary of Eurostat data collection process for FDI is also included
(particularly in section 1), showing the links and differences with data collections of the OECD and of the
ECB.

Main conclusions are as follows:

(cid:1) there are no methodological differences between Eurostat and the OECD with respect to FDI data.
Existing differences in data published for the EU15 Member States (1995-2002 is the period
considered) are of limited impact on total numbers. Differences are due either to rounding (exchange
rate effect, data in billions or in millions), or to temporary differences in timing of data revisions for
latest years. Maximum total difference 2 % (Table 2);

(cid:1) there is one methodological difference of a certain importance, concerning the Netherlands, between
the data published by Eurostat and the ECB for the Eurozone. Eurostat and the ECB are working
actively with the Netherlands to eliminate this difference during the course of next year 2004;

(cid:1) Member States also apply the international methodological definitions in their data collection on
which are based the data collected by Eurostat, the OECD and the ECB. Concerning the publication of
data, some temporary differences may exist due to differences in timing of data revisions for latest
years.

Please find the development of these conclusions in Annex A supported by tables 1, 2 and 3 that are sent
direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat