Little hope of special treatment for CEE sugar sector
out against special arrangements for the new member states when the
EU adopts final proposals for sugar reform later this year,
reports Chris Mercer.
Addressing the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, Fischer Boel said current Commission proposals for sugar reform "specifically address the position of the new member states. I do not agree with your conclusion that those member states would suffer from unfair quota reductions".
Fischer Boel re-iterated plans for growers in both new and old member states to receive the same compensation, which is currently set to be a sum equal to 60 per cent of the reduction of the institutional sugar price.
But, she added that she thought all member states should take equal responsibility for implementing reform: "In my opinion a special arrangement would just be against our restructuring objective and our principle of an equal treatment for all member states."
And there was also a warning for all member states that any half-baked reform would likely require more changes in the near future, only causing further disruption.
"I am therefore convinced that the proposed 33 per cent price cut and a 2.8 million. Quota cut is a necessary minimum to achieve an effective reform, balance the market and respect our international obligations," said Fischer Boel.
The news comes as a blow to those new member states - Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary and Lithuania - who recently signed a letter to the Commission along with six other countries arguing that price reductions should be much more gradual than those proposed and that quota reduction should mostly target the biggest exporters among member states.
Slovenia is one of the smallest sugar producers in the EU and agriculture minister Milan Pogacnik has said reforms may jeopardise the existence of its only production factory. Last year a study by the EU Commission found that all 10 of the signatories' industries could be ruined by reforms.
The EU Parliament had asked for a more detailed impact assessment of reforms, yet Fischer Boel said that further studies would only delay decisions that must be taken. "I am convinced that more studies will not provide us with facts that we do not already know."
She said a quota transfer system, still to be worked out, could help smaller producing states like Slovenia by allowing them to give up or 'sell' their whole sugar quota to other regions and invest the proceeds in developing an alternative, more viable industry.
Concluding her speech, Fischer Boel repeated the Commission's determination to get a political agreement on sugar reform by November this year, in time for the scheduled World Trade Organisation meeting in December.
Under existing plans, designed by Fischer Boel's predecessor Franz Fischler, minimum sugar beet prices would be cut by about a third, from €43.6 per ton to €27.4, in two steps over three years, and the total EU production quota would come down by 2.8 million tons to 14.6 million by 2008/9.
The EU produces between 19 and 20 million tons of sugar every year, accounting for 14 per cent of world sugar production. EU sugar is currently three times more expensive than that produced in developing countries.
Last year the Commission defied the World Trade Organisation by refusing to end member states' subsidies, on the basis that EU sugar production would collapse in the face of cheaper imports from the southern hemisphere, namely Brazil, which is now the world's biggest exporter.
