(2004/C 78 E/0654)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3646/03

by Salvador Jové Peres (GUE/NGL) and Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(9 December 2003)

Subject:   European Union/Morocco agreement

The Council of Ministers for Agriculture, meeting in March and December 1997, stressed ‘the importance of taking account, when defining the Community position in negotiations with third countries, of the characteristics of the Community agricultural market and of the socio-economic repercussions of the proposed concessions on that market, as well as of the need to develop a consistent overall strategy on the subject’, and they encouraged ‘the Commission to conduct regular analyses of the situation regarding trade in agricultural products and in particular of the impact of preferential arrangements for imports of such products into the Community. They stressed'the need to have available, before the adoption of negotiating directives or autonomous measures involving concessions on agricultural products, an analysis of the impact of the concessions liable to be granted to third countries or groups of third countries as well as of the advantages which could result for the European Union’.

Has the Commission carried out the impact studies called for by the Council in order to define the Community position in negotiations with Morocco? Will it forward them to Parliament? What is the scheduled timetable for submitting the regular impact studies on the association agreement with Morocco called for by the Council?

Joint answer

to Written Questions E-3645/03 and E-3646/03

given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(30 January 2004)

Within the recent agreement with Morocco on the import of agricultural products, quotas have been determined on the basis of traditional patterns on flows. Morocco has exceeded the quota fixed in the Association Agreement for the export of courgettes. However, this has caused no disturbances in the Community market, nor has any operator or country presented complaints. Moreover, the relevant data has been regularly supplied to the Management Committee of Fruit and Vegetables. Therefore, the Commission did not deem it necessary to take action as there is no case for fraud or other misgivings, the excess import quotas being the result of an increased demand for courgettes in the Community.

An impact study was conducted in 1997. In 2002, the Council formally asked the Commission to produce another study on the impact of the liberalisation of the Mediterranean agricultural products on the bilateral negotiations on agriculture. A reference to this study has been included in the conclusions of the meeting of Euro-Mediterranean Ministers of Foreign Affairs which took place in Naples on 2/3 December 2003. This study has been finalised recently and is available on (www.femise.org).

The Commission is perfectly aware of the particular sensitivities linked to the Mediterranean products. For this reason, it informs the players involved at regular intervals, in the context of the various Management and Consultative committees and through the different Council working groups.