Brussels, 01/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - During Monday's debate at the Special Agricultural Committee (SAC) examining proposals for the Mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the shell fruit sector, Member State producers (Spain, especially Italy but also France, Greece and Portugal) protested against the amount of aid (EUR 100 per hectare, as well as a national complement that can rise to EUR 9), the same as that for area (800,000 hectares) and the choice of the maximum guaranteed surfaces eligible for allocations (which will be Community-based and not shared out among countries) proposed by the Commission (also see EUROPE 27 July p 11).
Other delegations such as Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, Netherlands and even Austria have always been wary about the continuation of the aid system in this sector. They judged that is would be preferable to fund measures in the framework of the rural development programmes, an opinion that is not shared at all by producer countries and who benefit from direct aid from the first pillar. The latter are also critical of the Commission for having sought to exclude chestnuts from the new aid system in the sector. They stressed that the surfaces currently used in the production of shell fruit in the Community has risen to 1.1 million hectares (compared with the 800, 000 hectares proposed by the Commission) and also denounced the Commission's "too accountancy" based approach in the allocation of aid. Italy suggested that yields be taken into account in the sharing out of aid.