Brussels, 24/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 24 September, the European Commission adopted its report on the effects of the 2006 reform of the POSEI (Programme of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity) and a proposal to revise the regulation laying down specific measures for agriculture in the European Union's outermost regions.
The Commission believes that the 2006 reform has brought encouraging results, for example, in developing local agricultural production. The supply of essential goods, the additional costs of the supply of which are partly met by the POSEI regime, has also been assured.
In order to continue to improve the scheme, the Commission adopted a legislative proposal seeking to bring certain improvements (relaxation of rules on financial allocation and product transfer benefiting from the specific supply regime) and making the POSEI regulation compatible with the new requirements of the Lisbon Treaty. One of the most sensitive points of the regime relates to bananas. The Commission is keeping a very close eye on the possible repercussions of multilateral trade agreements on banana producers in the outermost regions (most of the bananas sold in the EU are produced in four of the nine outermost regions). The financial allocations for POSEI programmes in 2010 were: Spain €268.4 million; France €278.4 million; Portugal €106.2 million. (L.C./transl.rt)