Considerations on COM(2000)791-3 - Specific measures for certain agricultural products for the Canary Islands - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2000)791-3 - Specific measures for certain agricultural products for the Canary Islands. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2000)791  |
| date | June 28, 2001 |
(2) By Decision 91/314/EEC(3) the Council adopted a programme of options specific to the remote and insular nature of the Canary Islands (Poseican) in accordance with the Community's policy of assistance for the outermost regions. The purpose of the programme is to facilitate the economic and social development of the region and enable it to benefit from the advantages of the single market of which it is an integral part despite the objective factors leaving it geographically and economically isolated. The programme calls for the CAP to be applied in that region and provides for special measures to be adopted, in particular to improve the conditions in which agricultural products are produced and marketed there and to mitigate the effects of its exceptional geographical situation and constraints as since recognised in Article 299(2) of the Treaty.
(3) The particular geographical situation of the Canary Islands imposes additional transport costs in supplying essential products for human consumption, for processing and as agricultural inputs. In addition, objective factors arising as a result of insularity and outermost location impose further constraints on economic operators and producers in the Canary Islands that severely handicap their activities. These handicaps can be alleviated by lowering the price of these essential products. It is therefore appropriate to introduce specific supply arrangements to guarantee supply to these islands and compensate for the additional costs arising from their remoteness, insularity and outermost location.
(4) To that end, notwithstanding Article 23 of the Treaty, imports of the products concerned from third countries should be exempt from the applicable import duties. To take account of their origin and the customs treatment accorded to them under the Community provisions, products which have entered the Community's customs territory under inward processing or customs warehousing arrangements should be considered as direct imports, for the purpose of granting the benefits of the specific supply arrangements.
(5) In order to achieve the goal of lowering prices in the Canary Islands and mitigating the additional costs of their remoteness, insularity and outermost location while maintaining the competitiveness of Community products, aid should be granted for the supply to these islands of products of Community origin. Such aid should take account of the additional cost of transport to the Canary Islands and the prices applied to exports to third countries and, in the case of agricultural inputs and products intended for processing, the additional costs of insularity and outermost location.
(6) Since the quantities covered by the specific supply arrangements are limited to the supply requirements of the Canary Islands, those arrangements do not impair the proper functioning of the internal market. In addition, the economic advantages of the specific supply arrangements should not provoke deflections of trade in the products concerned. Re-dispatching or re-exportation of those products from the Canary Islands should therefore be prohibited. However, it is possible to re-export products in their unprocessed state or products resulting from local packaging of such products under certain conditions, so as to permit regional trade. In the case of processing, this prohibition should not apply to traditional exports and consignments.
(7) The economic advantages of the specific supply arrangements should be passed on so as to reduce production costs and bring down prices throughout the production and distribution chain to the end user, culminating in lower consumer prices. They should therefore be granted only on condition that they are actually passed on, and monitoring must be carried out to that end.
(8) Traditional livestock farming activities should be supported in order to help meet local consumption needs. To that end, derogations are needed from some of the provisions of the common market organisations which restrict production, to take account of the development and particular conditions of local production, which are quite different from those in the rest of the Community. This objective may also be pursued indirectly by financing genetic improvement programmes involving the purchase of pure-bred breeding animals, by purchasing commercial breeds more suited to local conditions and by supplementing the suckler cow premium and the slaughter premium. The estimate of local consumption requirements is drawn up in a periodic balance. To ensure that Community support can be mobilised effectively, a comprehensive programme to support local activities in the livestock and milk products sectors should enable the sectors concerned to define and implement strategies tailored to the local context for economic development, spatial organisation of production and increasing the professionalism of producers. Pending the development of local livestock farming, this programme may include temporary provision for the supply of male animals for fattening, the number of such animals to be supplied each year being limited so as not to compromise the abovementioned objective. It may also provide for measures to support milk production in the sheep and goat sector, to structure that sector, alleviate difficulties in the processing and marketing of local farm cheeses made from ewe's and goat's milk, rectify the fragmentation of supply, improve the quality of milk and assist diversification.
(9) The sheep and goat sector receives support through a supplementary premium granted to producers in the Canary Islands for heavy lambs. This measure has made it possible to develop local production, which is of social, economic and environmental importance because this activity is concentrated in the most disadvantaged areas of the islands where no other alternatives exist. This measure should be continued.
(10) Aid for human consumption of fresh cow's milk products is paid to dairies so that the milk produced can be disposed of in the normal fashion on the local market. Extending the aid to cover other products has enabled the sector to adapt to changing consumption habits. The level of self-sufficiency is still very low, so the measure should be continued.
(11) The area aid scheme for fruit and edible vegetables, roots and tubers, flowers and live plants has proved unsuitable, especially because of the slowness and complexity of procedures and the way the proposed aid was structured. Lessons should be learned from the encouraging results of the Poseidom reform in that sector, and marketing and processing aid should be envisaged with a view to supplying the market in the Canary Islands. Such aid must help local produce compete with products from elsewhere on high-growth markets, better satisfy the requirements of consumers and new distribution channels, improve the productivity of farms and upgrade the quality of products. The marketing of these products, both fresh and processed, should be continued and they should be promoted on the Community market. An economic study will help to refine the structure of the sector.
(12) Potato production is essential in the Canary Islands, for both economic and social and environmental reasons. The cultivated areas are situated in areas of average altitude where the difficult terrain and small size of holdings (terrace cultivation), together with the high prices of inputs, make for very high production costs. Specific aid is granted for growing potatoes for human consumption in order to support domestic production to satisfy the islands' consumption patterns. Abolition of the temporary measure restricting the deliveries of potatoes for human consumption during sensitive periods for the marketing of local production has left the sector very vulnerable. It is therefore planned to grant aid for local marketing of this potato production.
(13) It is economically and environmentally imperative that vines, the most widespread crop, continue to be cultivated, because winegrowing is practised in dry areas and on land that is particularly vulnerable to erosion. In order to help support domestic production, a flat-rate area aid is granted for the cultivation of vines for producing quality wines produced in specified regions. Likewise, neither abandonment premiums nor market mechanisms apply, with the exception of crisis distillation which may apply if the market is exceptionally disrupted as a result of quality problems.
(14) Tobacco growing is of historical importance on the islands. Economically speaking, tobacco preparation continues to be one of the chief industrial activities in the region. In social terms, tobacco cultivation is very labour intensive and carried out by small farms. Since the crop is not sufficiently profitable it is in danger of dying out. Tobacco is currently cultivated only on a small area on the island of La Palma, where it is used for the artisanal manufacture of cigars. Spain should therefore be authorised to continue to grant aid in addition to the Community aid so that this traditional crop can be maintained with a view to supporting the artisanal activity associated with it. In addition, to maintain the manufacture of tobacco products, imports into the Canary Islands of raw and semi-manufactured tobacco should continue to be exempt from customs duty, up to an annual limit of 20000 tonnes of stripped raw tobacco equivalent.
(15) Traditional honey in the Canary Islands is produced by a local breed of bees well suited to local conditions but not very productive. This breed is in danger of dying out, to be replaced by breeds which will be more profitable to beekeepers. The aid being paid to associations of beekeepers producing traditional honey of specific quality should therefore be continued, and the number of hives of local bees eligible for the aid should be adapted.
(16) Agricultural producers in the Canary Islands should be encouraged to supply quality products and the marketing of these should be assisted; in this respect, using the Community's graphic symbol might help achieve this purpose.
(17) Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999(4) lays down rural development measures that may be granted Community support and sets out the conditions for obtaining such support.
(18) This Regulation seeks to remedy the handicaps due to the remote and insular nature of that region.
(19) The structures of certain agricultural holdings or processing and marketing enterprises located in these islands show serious shortcomings and are beset with specific difficulties. Provision should accordingly be made for derogations for certain types of investments from the provisions limiting or preventing the grant of some structural aid provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999.
(20) The Community financial contribution for three of the accompanying measures referred to in Article 35(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 may amount in the outermost regions to up to 85 % of the total eligible cost. On the other hand, in accordance with the third indent of the second subparagraph of Article 47(2) of that Regulation, the Community financial contribution for agri-environmental measures, which constitutes the fourth accompanying measure, shall be limited to 75 % for all areas covered by Objective 1. In view of the importance attributed to agri-environment within the context of rural development, the rate of the Community financial contribution should be harmonised for all accompanying measures in the outermost regions.
(21) Pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999(5), each plan, Community support framework, operational programme and single programming document is to cover a period of seven years, and the programming period is to begin on 1 January 2000. In the interests of cohesiveness and to avoid discrimination between beneficiaries of the same programme, the derogations provided for in this Regulation should, exceptionally, be applicable to the whole programming period.
(22) A derogation may be granted from the Commission's consistent policy of not authorising State operating aid for the production, processing and marketing of agricultural products covered by Annex I to the Treaty in order to mitigate the specific constraints on farming in the Canary Islands as a result of their remoteness, insularity, outermost location, small area, mountainous terrain and climate and their economic dependency on a small number of products.
(23) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(6).