Brussels, 09/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the examination of several special reports from the Court of Auditors, next Tuesday, the European Parliament must also tackle the different aspects linked to the management of aid in the dairy and cereals sectors. The report by John Joseph McCartin (EPP, Ireland) analyses the special reports of the Court of Auditors relating to:
- Aid to skimmed milk and powdered skimmed milk for animal feed. The report stresses that, in four of the five Member States where the Court of Auditors carried out controls in 1999, there was no reliable control system. It notes that the new system of common market organisation, which came into effect on 1 January 2000, takes the observations made by the Court into account. According to Mr McCartin, the Parliament should call on the Commission to: - ensure that the level of aid granted in favour of the two kinds of skimmed milk should be directly related to the quality of the product (mainly the protein content); - envisage the introduction of a tendering procedure for fixing aid granted depending on the use of powdered skimmed milk.
- Butyric fats. The McCartin report deplores the structural nature of persistent surpluses in the milk sector, a situation mainly imputed to the fall in consumption. It notes that the situation has grown worse since the decision adopted by the European Council in Berlin aimed at increasing quotas until 2005. The rapporteur proposes to the Parliament that it should request promotional campaigns be carried out at Community and at national level in order to step up the demand for milk and dairy products, as is the
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PLENARY SESSION (continued)
practice in other sectors (olive oil, beef, etc.). The Commission, for its part, should ensure that the Member States improve the management of selling methods. Mr McCartin recalls that, in his special 8/2000 report, the Court of Auditors notes that 92% of the funds available in 1998 for selling measures for "butter in favour of non-profit making organisations" were only carried out in three Member States, none of which are among the poorest Union nations.
- Impact of CAP reform on the cereals sector. Mr McCartin recalls that the Court of Auditors noted, in its special report 2/1999, that the 1992 reform (introduction of the set-aside system and loss-leader price system) met its objectives during the transitional period, thus putting an end to the cereal crisis. However, he invites the plenary to call on the European Commission to include in its future proposals: - measures aimed at improving the position of the smallest producers by granting differentiated aid according to the size or output of the farm; - cofinancing possibilities for support to income; - measures aimed at remedying the current situation in which the aid granted to the cereals sector is concentrated in the most prosperous Union regions; - provisions allowing the unequal distribution of income to be rebalanced, since, in 1995, nearly 40% of compensatory payments were paid to fewer than 3% of the beneficiaries, and small farmers (57% of beneficiaries) only received 4.5%).
- Classical swine fever. The McCartin report shares the opinion of the Commission and of the Court of Auditors (special report 1/2000) whereby the producers of pigmeat should assume a larger part of the financial burden represented by the measures for containing the epidemic in question. It also calls on the Commission to ensure that the system managing the movement of animals is fully developed and administered under Commission control.
