Brussels, 25/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 25 February, the Council formally adopted the regulations laying down specific agricultural measures for the Outermost Regions (ORs) of the EU and the smaller islands of the Aegean Sea (specifically, all of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea with the exceptions of Crete and Evia), following a first-reading agreement with the European Parliament (details in EUROPE 10779). In 2013, OR banana producers will receive additional aid of €40 million.
The two regulations provide for agricultural measures to offset the problems caused by the remoteness of certain areas. One regulation covers the following ORs: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Azores, Madeira and the Canary Isles. The other covers the smaller islands of the Aegean Sea, which encounter problems due to their small size, low population, remoteness and lack of transport links.
These new regulations bring EU legislation into line with the Treaty of Lisbon as regards implementing acts and delegated acts (Articles 290 and 291 of the treaty). At the same time, as the original texts have been modified several times since they were adopted, this exercise provided an opportunity to recast the entire regulations to ensure that they better reflect current state schemes.
For the ORs, the new text stresses the central role played by the Programmes of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI), which contain two fundamental elements: specific supply arrangements due to the remoteness and specific measures aiming to support local agricultural production. A specific provision has been added so that a single payment of €40 million can be made in 2013 to allow the banana production sector in the outermost regions to adapt to the decrease in customs tariffs applied to this product, following the most recent trade agreements concluded in this field. After its signature by the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Council, the legislative act will be published in the Official Journal of the EU. (LC/transl.fl)