Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)’ (COM(2003) 806 final - 2003/0312 CNS)
Date: 2004-02-25
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EAGGF Guarantee Section, European standard, environmental standard, rural development

C 110/96

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.4.2004

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘proposal for a Council Regu-
lation amending Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the Euro-
pean Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)’

(COM(2003) 806 final - 2003/0312 CNS)

(2004/C 110/15)

On 16 January 2004 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 37 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

On 27 January 2004 the Committee Bureau instructed the Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and
the Environment to prepare the Committee's work on the subject.

In view of the urgency of the matter, at its 406th plenary session of 25 and 26 February 2004 (meeting of
25 February 2004) the European Economic and Social Committee decided to appoint Mr Donnelly as
rapporteur-general and adopted the following opinion by 60 votes for, one against and with one absten-
tion.

1. Introduction

2. Gist of Commission Proposal

The Act of Accession provided to the new Members
1.1
States the measure ‘Compliance with community standards’,
financed under EAGGF Guarantee Section, intended to support
farmers' efforts to reach EU standards during the transition
period granted by giving them additional transfers to offset the
costs of compliance.

The CAP Reform introduced a general

1.2
‘Meeting stan-
dards’ measure (1) intended to help farmers adapt to the oper-
ating costs resulting from newly introduced EU standards based
on Community legislation in the fields of the environment,
public, animal and plant health, animal welfare and occupa-
tional safety.

2.1
As it seems at this stage very difficult to increase the
Structural Funds resources to support compliance with stan-
dards, and as it is at the same time a priority for the EU to
speed up compliance with Community standards, particularly
in the field of environment, the Commission proposes to intro-
duce
further derogation to Council Regulation (EC)
1257/1999 to allow new Member States to take investment
costs into account, under certain conditions, when determining
the level of the annual support under the ‘Meeting standards’
measure.

a

1.3
The Commission proposal on the Act of Accession
adaptation to CAP Reform (2) deletes the measure ‘Compliance
with community standards’ in order to avoid any overlap and
to maintain the possibilities available to the new Member States
under the new ‘Meeting standards’ measure.

2.2
This temporary derogation would be limited to the
2004-2006 programming period and would not involve addi-
tional spending from the Community budget as it will be
financed within the envelopes 2004-2006 approved for the
new Member States.

However,

the new Member States have

1.4
allocated
substantial amounts of their EAGGF Guarantee rural develop-
ment allocations to cover on-farm investment to adapt to Com-
munity standards in the field of environment, rather than
providing for this expenditure out of their EAGGF Guidance
allocations.

3. General comments

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No. 1783/2003 of 29 September 2003
amending Regulation (EC) n. 1257/1999 on support for rural devel-
opment from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee
Fund (EAGGF), Chapter Va – OJ L 270 21.10.2003

(2) COM(2003) 643: ‘Proposal for a Council Decision adapting the Act
of Accession of
the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia,
Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia and the
adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is
founded, following the reform of the common agricultural policy’

The Committee fully endorses the Commission's priority to
speed up the new member states' compliance with Community
standards, particularly in the field of environment, and there-
fore supports the Commission's proposal allowing the ten
acceding countries to utilise funding from the Guarantee Fund
on measures to improve and protect the environment.

30.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 110/97

4. Specific comments

5. Conclusions

The EESC places a high priority on measures in the field
4.1
of environment and believes that investments in projects to
ameliorate the environment at farm level in the new member
states are desirable.

Brussels, 25 February 2004.

5.1

The EESC fully supports the Commission proposal.

The President

of the European Economic and Social
Committee

Roger BRIESCH