WRITTEN QUESTION E-3614/03 by Esko Seppänen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Cultivation of sweet rowanberries.
Date: 2003-12-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Finland, State aid, agricultural policy, aid to agriculture, reform of the CAP, soft fruit

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/835

(2004/C 78 E/0888)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3614/03

by Esko Seppänen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(5 December 2003)

Subject: Cultivation of sweet rowanberries

The Commission has exclusive competence for agricultural support. Hence this question: have the
authorities of a Member State acted correctly in not allocating agricultural support to all farmers on the
same basis but allocating it according to their place of residence? The Finnish authorities have not granted
the appropriate support to farmers who cultivate sweet rowanberries in what the authorities consider to be
the ‘wrong’ part of the country, i.e. in an area which is not a berry cultivation area. Are rowanberries
which have been bred so as to make them sweet defined as berries or fruit?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(29 January 2004)

Member States can as their priorities dictate subsidize particular crops provided that the aid is compatible
with Community law. Up to now they have had to submit all such proposed aids to the Commission for
clearance as compatible (see Community guidelines for State aid in the agriculture sector (1)). We have
however recently adopted as part of the CAP reform a set of rules (2) under which Member States will be
able to grant agricultural aids falling into certain categories without first having to request our approval.
These block exemptions will speed up implementation of the new agricultural State aids and also facilitate
implementation of the national programmes to raise environmental, animal welfare and hygiene standards
in agriculture.

In the absence of precise information on the measure to which the Honourable Member refers we cannot
comment on its compatibility with Community law.

On the question of whether the fruit (pihlajanmarja in Finnish) yielded by the rowan tree (Sorbus
aucuparia) is a fruit or a berry, we consider that it is a berry and hence also a fruit, since berries are by
definition also fruits.

(1) OJ C 28, 1.2.2000.
(2) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1/2004 of 23 December 2003 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the
EC Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production, processing and marketing of
agricultural products, OJ L 1, 3.1.2004.

(2004/C 78 E/0889)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3615/03

by Esko Seppänen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(5 December 2003)

Subject: Fishing for migratory salmon

The main spawning areas for wild salmon in the Baltic include the rivers which flow into the Gulf of
Bothnia. When salmon swim out to sea from their spawning areas, they can be freely caught even by those
who do not have any duty to take measures to preserve migratory salmon stocks. Are the existing
restrictions on fishing sufficient to preserve fish stocks, and could Member States’ quotas take account of
their measures to preserve stocks in the rivers where the fish reproduce?