WRITTEN QUESTION E-0498/04 by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Community warning on Spanish productivity.
Date: 2004-02-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU statistics, European Union membership, Spain, economic situation, report, work productivity

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/801

The Commission too has concerns about certain export practices such as State Trading Enterprises (STEs)
operating in the milk sector. The Dairy Industry Restructuring Bill 2001 may have replaced the New
Zealand Dairy Board by a company which controls 98 % of that country’s milk and assumed the Board’s
role and sole exporter status but, because of the statutory privileges conferred on it by the Bill it remains,
de jure and de facto, a State Trading Enterprise. The Bill maintains the company’s right to licences to
export to designated markets like the USA, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Japan and the EU, until the
beginning of 2011 in some cases. In addition to the right to all export licences to some of these designated
markets, the company has the sole right to export to such markets under the tariff rate quotas opened by
those countries.

Article XVII of the GATT and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XVII obliges Members to
notify annually non-governmental enterprises,
including marketing boards, which have been granted
exclusive or special rights or privileges including statutory powers, in the exercise of which they influence
through their sales the level or direction of exports. Members should ensure the maximum transparency
possible in their notification so as to permit a clear appreciation of the manner of operation of the
enterprises notified and the effects of their operations on international trade. The last notification from
New Zealand was on 20 July 2001 which indicated that ‘The NZDB may continue to be notified as a STE
but further analysis on this question is needed’. Since then the company which replaced the NZDB has
expanded its share of the world market for dairy products dramatically. The details will be sent directly to
the Honourable Member.

The Commission’s concerns are due to the statutory monopoly of a single company on a significant part
of preferential world trade in the dairy sector, the consequent potential of cross subsidisation under such
an arrangement,
the effect of a single desk seller on world market price formation under these
circumstances and the absence of the transparency required by Article XVII of the WTO rules.

However a strategic choice has to be made by Members, and in particular the export-oriented ones,
between two alternative routes which are largely mutually exclusive: either they believe that multilateral
negotiations are the way forward to a fair and market-oriented trading system, or they believe WTO
litigation is the way forward.

The Commission is convinced that the consistency between the EU commitments under WTO and its
domestic support policy will be strengthened even further in the perspective of continued common
agricultural policy (CAP) reform.

(2004/C 84 E/0897)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0498/04

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(23 February 2004)

Subject: Community warning on Spanish productivity

The Commission claims that Spanish labour productivity is poor, ‘inter alia’ thanks to the low levels of
the population and the slowness with which Spain is making the move to a
education amongst
knowledge-based economy.

This assessment has caused some surprise, and Spaniards would like to know more about the specific
factors which led the Commission to reach it.

What parameters were used to arrive at these conclusions, and in what sense does the Commission think
that dialogue on the issue would help narrow the gap between conceptual positions on the issue of
productivity in Spain?

C 84 E/802

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(30 March 2004)

Implementation Report of

In the
(BEPGs),
the Commission stresses in the introductory paragraph of the Spanish note the fact that the ‘poor labour
productivity, also linked to the relatively low education levels of the population and the slow transition to
a knowledge-based economy, raises concerns about the long-term performance of the economy’.

the 2003-2005 Broad Economic Policy Guidelines

This assessment is based on the three following elements:

(cid:1) Labour productivity per hours worked in Spain is below the EU-15 average (83,8 % of the EU-15
level (1)). Moreover, the annual percentage growth of labour productivity per person employed still
remains below the EU-15 performance, as is the case since 1997. The very rapid employment growth
has certainly had a negative impact on labour productivity. However, the latter is also influenced by
the performances as regards the transition to the knowledge-based economy. In this respect, the link
between the low level of productivity and the need to strengthen the knowledge-based economy was
already identified as a key challenge for Spain in the 2003-2005 BEPGs.

(cid:1) Although the educational attainment of the Spanish population, as measured by the percentage of the
population aged 20 to 24 having completed at least upper secondary education, has progressed
quickly in the last decade, it is still below the EU average (63,4 % as against 74 % in the EU-15 in
2003) and public spending in education as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) remains
among the lowest in the EU (4,43 % in 2000 as compared to 4,93 % in the EU-15).

(cid:1) As compared to the EU average, Spain also performs badly in terms of business Research and
Development (R & D) (see graph below), patents (24 per million inhabitants in 2001 as compared to
161 in the EU-15) and ICT take-up (29,5 % of households had internet access at home in 2002 as
against 38,9 % in the EU-15).

Finally, the Commission would like to draw the Honourable Member’s attention to section 4,5 of the same
report, which does acknowledge that several initiatives have been launched to strengthen the knowledge-
based economy.

Business R&D expenditure as % of GDP

1,4

1,2

1

0,8

0,6

0,4

0,2

0

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Spain

EU-15

(1)

Forecasted for 2003See structural
play.do?screen=welcome&open=/&product=STRIND_ECOBAC&language=en&depth=2

indicators website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/newcronos/queen/dis-

(2004/C 84 E/0898)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0508/04

by José Ribeiro e Castro (UEN) to the Commission

(24 February 2004)

Subject: Portugal (cid:1) nuclear waste

According to media reports a number of locations identified as nuclear-waste dumps were detected in
summer 2003 by the French science ship Iledesein in the area in which the undersea cable linking
mainland Portugal, the Azores and Madeira is being laid.