Agenda 2000: beef and veal, reform of the common organisation of the market COM
1998/0109(CNS)
The proposal was approved with a number of amendments and the matter was then referred back to committee pursuant to Rule 60 (2). The final vote was postponed. The Parliament's Rapporteur was Mr. Georges GAROT (PES, F).
The main amendments were as follows :
- measures to promote better organisation of production, processing and marketing with a view to improving transparency (labelling, traceability, etc.) and communication within the stockfarming sector and downstream industries;
- measures to improve quality in dietary and health terms, market diversification, product certification, etc.;
- measures to increase participation by producers and their organisations in marketing;
- definition of a 'veal' calf : male or female bovine animal whose carcase weight is less than 200 kg.;
- premium shall be granted once in the life of each bovine animal;
- 'regional ceiling' shall mean the number of animals entitled to benefit, in a region and per calendar year, from the special premium;
- maximum amount of premiums per animal payable in a given Member State in any one calendar year shall correspond to the average number of animals slaughtered in the individual categories in the years 1997, 1998 and 1999, as recorded by Eurostat or any other official statistics approved by the Commission;
- adult bovine animals shall not qualify for the premium unless thay are agd over 10 months;
- calves for slaughter shall not qualify for the premium unless they are aged under 8 months;
- ECU 150 for the calendar year 2002 and subsequent calendar years per eligible steer and age bracket;
- the additional national suckler cow premium shall be maintained under the current conditions;
- when a producer ceases activity and does not transfer his holding, any rights he has shall be placed in the national reserve of the relevant Member State;
- producers in mountain regions and less favoured areas to be allocated premium rights;
- producers exempt from the application of the stocking density if the number of animals held on his holding and to be taken into account for determining the stocking density is not more than 20 livestock units (LUs);
- provisions for anti-fraud measures to be stepped up;
- Member States to make additional payments to producers in their territory within the limits of ECU 1.8 billion (instead of original text of Article 13 and Annex V);
- additional payments may be made in the form of slaughter premiums (rather than headage payments and/or area payments (Art. 13)) and the Community criteria for the granting of the premium;
- to ensure balance between supply and demand, the Commission is to propose additional measures to curb production which shall involve either reducing the slaughter weight or introducing individual quotas for premiums for male bovine animals (under Art. 43 (2) of the Treaty);
- 'Private storage' replaced by 'intervention scheme' anddetailed measures relating to the operation of the intervention scheme;
- detailed rules regarding selling prices, conditions for release from storage and, where appropriate, the processing of products bought in by the intervention agencies, shall be adopted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 39.�