91999E2024

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2024/99

by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission

(3 November 1999)

Subject: Small farmers and preservation of the countryside

Does the Commission recognise the role of small farmers in helping to preserve the countryside as a resource both for the local community and for tourism?

Does the Commission not feel that the rural environment protection scheme and other rural development schemes should be widened and enlarged to ensure that adequate financial recognition is given to small farmers for this role?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(24 November 1999)

The Commission recognises the important role of small farmers in the management of the countryside, in the conservation of bio-diversity and the protection of the environment.

Council Regulation (EC) 1259/1999 of 17 May 1999, establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy(1), allows the Member States to modulate the direct payments granted to farmers according to certain objective criteria. The Member States can use money made available from reduced payments for certain additional measures in the framework of rural development support provided under Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/ of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations(2). This Regulation presents an integrated approach to rural development, where the recognition of the multi-functional role of agriculture, and implicitly of small farmers, is a key element. It provides a series of measures which may be adopted by Member States according to their specific needs. Since Member States may lay down further or more restrictive conditions for granting Community support for rural development, some of these measures can be used specifically to support small farmers. Agri-tourism is one of the possible actions that can be adopted by Member States in their rural development programmes to promote rural restructuring and diversify the economy.

(1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.

(2) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.