Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1868/94 establishing a quota system in relation to the production of potato starch (COM(2004) 772 final — 2004/0269 (CNS))
Date: 2005-03-09
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: agricultural quota, potato, production quota, starch

22.9.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 234/25

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Regu-
lation amending Regulation (EC) No 1868/94 establishing a quota system in relation to the produc-
tion of potato starch

(COM(2004) 772 final — 2004/0269 (CNS))

(2005/C 234/06)

On 20 January 2005 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 37 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

The Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment, which was responsible for preparing
the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 17 February 2005. The rapporteur was
Mr Konstantinidis.

At its 415th plenary session, held on 9 and 10 March 2005 (meeting of 9 March 2005), the European
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 127 votes with 7 abstentions.

1. Gist of the Commission proposal

1.1
The aim of this proposal is to allocate the quota for the
2005/2006 and 2006/2007 marketing years between potato-
starch producing Member States on the basis of the report
from the Commission to the Council on the quota system for
the production of potato starch, thus amending Regulation (EC)
No. 1868/94.

It is proposed that the present quotas be maintained for

1.2
the next two years.

The

reason why

1.3
the Commission is proposing
unchanged potato starch quotas for the next two years is that it
is too early to assess the effects of the reform of the CAP (i.e.
of decoupling) and of enlargement of the EU on the potato
starch sector. In fact, in a number of potato starch producing
Member States, the CAP reform will only be implemented by
2006 (i.e. marketing year 2006-2007).

The Commission will therefore present a new report

1.4
accompanied by a new proposal by 30 September 2006.

2. General comments

2.1
According to the Commission's report, EU production
of potato starch remained close to the quota fixed, and total

Brussels, 9 March 2005.

exports of cereal starch and potato starch remained relatively
stable. The share of potato starch in starch production as a
the
whole is declining, at around 20 %. As stated before,
Commission proposes a rollover of
the quotas fixed for
2004/2005. Polish, Lithuanian and Czech farmers apart, most
European potato starch producers support the Commission's
proposal, although they would have preferred the normal
prolongation period for the quota system (three years).

2.2 Whilst backing the Commission's proposal, the EESC
shares the potato starch producers' concern that the timetable
for the discussion and adoption of the Commission's proposal
has become quite tight, especially considering that farmers will
start planting seed potatoes in March 2005. The Committee
therefore invites the European Parliament and the Council to
take into consideration these time constraints when dealing
with this proposal.

3. Conclusions

the

The EESC supports

the Commission's proposal of
3.1
years
to the marketing
extending
2005/2006 and 2006/2007 and it recommends that the dead-
line for the assessment in view of the future proposal be strictly
respected.

current

quotas

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND