WRITTEN QUESTION E-3645/03 by Salvador Jové Peres (GUE/NGL)and Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. European Union/Morocco agreement.
Date: 2003-12-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Morocco, agricultural trade, association agreement (EU), fruit vegetable, quantitative restriction, surveillance concerning imports

C 78 E/618

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(8 January 2004)

The question of the Honourable Member refers to a statement made by André Sapir in an interview
published in El País in early November 2003. The occasion of the interview was a seminar at IESE Business
School, where Mr Sapir was presenting the report of the independent study group established on the
initiative of President Prodi, which he chaired. His statements reflected the views expressed in the report
rather than the views of President Prodi or the Commission. As a matter of fact the cover page of the Sapir
‘The Report represents only the opinion of the independent Group and does not
report states that:
necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.’

(2004/C 78 E/0653)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3645/03

by Salvador Jové Peres (GUE/NGL)
and Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(9 December 2003)

Subject: European Union/Morocco agreement

At a conference held in Almeria on 24 October 2003, a Commission official acknowledged that the fruit
and vegetables imported from Morocco to European markets had on a number of occasions exceeded the
quotas laid down by the association agreement. He specifically acknowledged that Morocco had imported
into Europe quantities of tomatoes and courgettes in excess of the authorised quotas. According to press
reports, he explained that the new courgette quota negotiated with Morocco was nothing new and posed
no threat to producers in south-eastern Spain, since Morocco had previously been importing similar
quantities illegally, and the impact on the market would go unnoticed.

If the Commission was aware that import quotas were being exceeded, why did it take no action?
Following the renewal of the EU/Morocco association agreement, how will it monitor compliance with
these quotas? What action will it take if the quotas are exceeded?

(2004/C 78 E/0654)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3646/03

by Salvador Jové Peres (GUE/NGL)
and Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(9 December 2003)

Subject: European Union/Morocco agreement

The Council of Ministers for Agriculture, meeting in March and December 1997, stressed ‘the importance
of taking account, when defining the Community position in negotiations with third countries, of the
characteristics of the Community agricultural market and of the socio-economic repercussions of the
proposed concessions on that market, as well as of the need to develop a consistent overall strategy on the
subject’, and they encouraged ‘the Commission to conduct regular analyses of the situation regarding trade
in agricultural products and in particular of the impact of preferential arrangements for imports of such
products into the Community. They stressed’the need to have available, before the adoption of negotiating
directives or autonomous measures involving concessions on agricultural products, an analysis of the
impact of the concessions liable to be granted to third countries or groups of third countries as well as of
the advantages which could result for the European Union’.

Has the Commission carried out the impact studies called for by the Council
in order to define the
Community position in negotiations with Morocco? Will it forward them to Parliament? What is the
scheduled timetable for submitting the regular impact studies on the association agreement with Morocco
called for by the Council?