Citrus fruits: aid scheme for producers

Under consultation procedure, the European Parliament adopted the legislative resolution by Salvador Jové Peres (GUE/NGL,ES, which approves the Commission proposal for a Council regulation amending regulation 2202/96/EC introducing a Community aid scheme for producers of certain citrus fruits, subject to amendments in the following areas: - noting that there is a low rate of self-sufficiency in citrus fruit, particularly processed products such as juice and concentrates etc., which is increasing the European agricultural balance of trade deficit; - noting that environmental restrictions and the impact of withdrawals on the amount of operational funds are limiting recourse to withdrawals and leaving a large margin between the commitment appropriations and payments allocated to withdrawals; - noting that the citrus fruit processing industry is being affected by a shortage of funding which may derive from environmental problems caused by deflection from processing of withdrawals; - noting that there is a margin for increasing the processing thresholds for citrus fruit while complying with budgetary neutrality for fruit and vegetables as a whole; - laying down processing thresholds of 600,000 tonnes for lemons, 6,000 tonnes for grapefruit, 1,665,000 tonnes for oranges and 339,000 tonnes for mandarins, clementines and satsumas; - providing that the reduction in aid shall in no case exceed 20%.�