91996E0697

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0697/96 by Katerina Daskalaki (UPE) to the Commission (26 March 1996)

Subject: Increasing the Greek national guaranteed quantity for dried fodder

Greece's national guaranteed quantity (NGQ) for dried fodder has been set at 32 000 tonnes although its actual annual production is of the order of 50 000 tonnes.

As Greece is the only EU Member State whose national guaranteed quantity does not correspond to its actual production, but represents a mere 64% of that figure, will the Commission state whether it intends to take action to adjust the quantity laid down in Regulation 603/95 ((OJ L 63, 21.3.1995, p. 1. )) to bring the Greek national guaranteed quantity up to 50 000 tonnes a year, thus helping ensure the survival of the dried fodder industry which has encountered severe problems because of the current system?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (16 April 1996)

The Council compromise of July 1994 on the reform of the dried fodder sector was intended to put an end to the fast development of dried fodder production and uncontrolable growth of related budgetary expenses. One of the major issues of the reform was the establishment of maximum guaranteed quantities for dehydrated fodder as well as for sun-dried fodder.

On the same occasion, the Council agreed upon the national guaranteed quantities (NGQs) attributed to the Member States for both kinds of dried fodder. Those NGQs were calculated on the basis of the subsidised production of dried fodder (dehydrated and sun-dried) in the Member States during the reference marketing years 1992/1993 and 1993/1994.

The same rule was applied to all Member States and it implied, for some of them, fixing NGQs less than the level of their last production before the reform, owing to the fast upward trend of that production. This problem does not, therefore, only relate to Greece. As a consequence, should the Council agree to increase the Greek NGQ, those other Member States which find themselves in the situation described above would certainly apply for an increase of their NGQs and this would obviously be against the Council's intentions.