Brussels, 06/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament will take a stance, on 14 March (consultation procedure), on the report by Portuguese Christian Democrat Arlindo Cunha. The report considerably modifies the European Commission's proposal on the premiums and guarantee thresholds for leaf tobacco. It is opposed to the Commission's attempt to introduce a political element in this rather technical proposal (which mainly aims at extending the aid regime), and aims to gradually phase out tobacco subsidies. Furthermore, the Committee on Agriculture (which was even more critical than Mr Cunha at the vote on his report) proposes changes to the initial proposal concerning the missions and aims of the Community tobacco fund as well as premiums and guarantee thresholds. Thus:
Abolition of tobacco aid. The report does away with the "recital" in the proposal that refers to the communication on sustainable development in Europe, which stipulates that, after evaluation of the regime, in 2002, it will be necessary to adjust the regime to allow the gradual phasing out of subsidies. Mr Cunha considers that this text: "which has never been approved by the European Council of Gothenburg" prejudges the final result of the decisions to be taken in due time on the future of the sector (the Commission has still to present studies on the sector at the end of 2002 and early 2003).
Community Tobacco Fund. While the Commission proposes to increase withholding on premiums (intended to fuel this fund) by 2% in 2002 and 5% in 2004, the members of the agriculture committee call for withholding to be kept at 2% (current rate) because the funds released (EUR 20 million annually) are sufficient for carrying out research in agronomy and campaigns against the effects of tobacco use, for which they are foreseen. Also, they stress that this money has largely been under-used by the Commission. Regarding the missions of the Fund, the report opposes the Commission's idea to abolish research in agronomy from the list of actions financed by the Fund and also refuses to have research replaced by crop farmers' reconversion and restructuring actions. According to the report, these latest measures must not be partially financed from premiums but from additional allocations.
Premiums and thresholds. The members of the agriculture committee refuse reductions of quotas and premiums foreseen by the Commission for certain varieties of tobacco. Such measures would only affect the income of producers, which is already insufficient, and would hinder farm restructuring, states the report.