WRITTEN QUESTION E-0542/04 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Active publication of information about subsidies and ratios between payments to large and small farms under the CAP.
Date: 2004-02-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Netherlands, administrative transparency, aid system, common agricultural policy, distribution of EU funding, large holding, smallholding, support policy

C 78 E/954

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

The EU currently encourages Member States in their efforts to modernise labour markets through the
European Employment Strategy,
insurance schemes more
supportive of active and preventive measures for the unemployed. The aim is to prevent inflow into
long-term unemployment and to promote the sustainable integration into employment of unemployed and
inactive people.

in particular by making unemployment

(2004/C 78 E/1009)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0523/04

by Emmanouil Mastorakis (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Second and Third Community Support Frameworks

(17 February 2004)

Will the Commission give the take-up votes for the 2003 estimates for the Member States of the European
Union in respect of the Second and Third Community Support Frameworks?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(5 March 2004)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.

(2004/C 78 E/1010)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0542/04

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(26 February 2004)

Subject: Active publication of information about subsidies and ratios between payments to large and small

farms under the CAP

1.
Is the Commission aware of the report by the British organisation Oxfam which indicates that seven
large land-owners in Britain receive an average of GBP 285 714 per annum in cereal subsidies from the
EU, while 15 181 small farmers in Britain receive an annual average of only GBP 3 632 in EU cereal
subsidies?

2.
Can the Commission confirm that a very large proportion of these subsidies goes to the affluent
regions of Eastern England and Lincolnshire and that this allocation ratio, which benefits large farmers,
also will not change significantly after the proposed agricultural policy reform?

3.
Is the Commission aware of similar situations in other EU Member States, particularly those where
there are big disparities in the size of arable and livestock farms? Are such situations most extreme in the
southern Member States?

Can the Commission outline the distribution of EU farm subsidies to Dutch farmers in 2001, 2002

4.
and 2003, broken down according to farm size? If so, how soon can it do so? If not, why not?

5.
Can the Commission tell me which ten Dutch legal persons received most in EU farm subsidies in
2001, 2002 and 2003 and how much farm subsidy they received? If so, how soon can it do so? If not,
why not?

6.
Does the Commission agree that the European public have a right to complete information about
where EU farm subsidies go, who receives them and what kind of farms benefit most/least from them? If
not, why not?

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/955

the Commission,

take measures to try to make such
7. Will
transparency possible in every EU Member State? If so, what steps will it take, and how soon? If not, why
not?

in consultation with the Council,

Sources:

(cid:1) Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’, 23 January 2004: ‘Rijkste Britten innen meeste landbouwsubsidies’

(Rich Britons receive most farm subsidies).

(cid:1) http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/subsidies220104.htm

(cid:1) http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/subsidies220104_facts.htm

(cid:1) http://www.minlnv.nl/infomart/parlemnt/2003/par03100.htm

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(9 March 2004)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.

(2004/C 78 E/1011)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0543/04

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(26 February 2004)

Subject: CAP: the declining contribution of EU funds to the survival of small farmers in a context of low

consumer prices and low world market prices

In the Commission’s opinion, has the existence of the Common Agricultural Policy in recent decades
1.
and the financial assistance from Community funds which it provides helped to enable small and medium-
sized farmers, in both the arable and livestock sectors, despite relatively low consumer prices for their
products and falling prices on the world market, to remain able to earn an acceptable income and thus to
ensure the continuity of production?

2.
In the light of the recent study by the development organisation Oxfam, can the Commission
confirm that the funding currently provided under the CAP is increasingly failing to guarantee the survival
of small farmers and that the bulk of it goes to large farmers and large land-owners?

3. When did the change referred to at 2 occur? Did it happen after the accession of new Member States
with bigger disparities in land areas owned than existed in the six founder Member States of the European
Communities?

4.
To what extent was the existing financing method responsible for the fact that, after previous
increases in scale, the number of farms in the present 15 Member States declined by a further 15,7 %
between 1995 and 2002? Why was this method of
the development
concerned?

financing unable to prevent

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(22 March 2004)

The Commission is collecting the information it needs to answer the question. It will communicate its
findings as soon as possible.