Strasbourg, 14/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has brought a few improvements to the draft reform on aid to Community banana growers. It follows the agriculture committee's recommendations entirely (EUROPE 9314). By adopting the report of Jean-Claude Fruteau (PES, France) on 13 December in Strasbourg, the EP has adjusted the draft to: maintain the current system of advance payments to producers (described as being “indispensable” to this activity); to oblige the Commission to propose, if the customs situation deems fit, a raft of concrete measures to guarantee the revenue of Community banana growers (“an increase in funding linked to a possible reduction in customs tariffs” is necessary, according to Fruteau; to provide opportunity for mainland producers (Cyprus, mainland Greece and Portugal) to benefit from partial decoupling of aid (60% single payment, 40% of the amount of aid is tied to production levels); make the affiliation of aid beneficiaries to a recognised organisation compulsory unless this is impossible for geographical reasons.
During the 11 December debate on this reform in Strasbourg, Mr Fruteau highlighted the importance of maintaining the system of advance payments because of the threat to the survival of producers. Without these advance payments, producers will be “dependent on private loans, when insecurity characterising the commercial environment of this sector makes long term loans difficult to obtain”. In this context of economic instability, the rapporteur concluded that “it really is up to the European public authorities to provide sufficient guarantees to ensure that the situation created by trade policy choices at a world level do not go against the interests of some of the Union's most fragile farming communities”.
The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, indicated during the debate that she rejected most of the EP's amendments. She noted with satisfaction that it had supported the general principle of the strategy, for producers in outermost regions (Canaries, Madera, Guadeloupe and Martinique) and to replace current compulsory aid with a transfer of funding of €278.8 million a year to the POSEI programme. Mainland producers will be integrated into the single payment regime.
The last word, however, goes to the ministers of agriculture from EU Member States who will adopt the regulation of reform of the banana sector on 19 December, without any problem and without amending the Commission's initial proposal. (lc)