Brussels, 08/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission adopted, last Friday, a draft regulation aimed at modifying the Common Market Organisation (CMO) for seeds in order to slow the constant rise in Community spending allocated to this sector. According to the Commission, the production of seeds in the EU is excessive compared to the possibilities to absorb them in the Community market. In fact, the sector has seen, since 1994, a significant increase in seeded area. This growth, which has accelerated in 1999 and 2000, is translated by spending reaching EUR 109.5 million as part of 2000.
Thus the Commission foresees the introduction in 2002, on the basis of what already exists for rice seeds since the 1999-2000 harvest year, of a budgetary stabiliser (maximum quantity guaranteed per Member States) to limit the spending linked to the payment of aids to producers of seed. The proposal also foresees the renewal of the amount of aid to be paid for the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 harvests.