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Reform of the support scheme for Cotton
| 23/06/2008 – Mariann Fischer Boel,
Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural
Development, welcomed today's adoption by the
Council of the reformed EU cotton support
scheme. The reform maintains 65 % of aid
"decoupled" (i.e. no longer linked to
production) and 35 % linked to cotton production
in the form of area payments. National
restructuring programmes are created to
facilitate restructuring in the cotton ginning
industry and to enhance quality and marketing of
the cotton produced. The new scheme will replace
the current support arrangement, which was
annulled by the European Court of Justice on 7
September 2006. |
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Decoupling means that priority is given to
supporting the income of producers, rather than what they
produce. Producers receive the aid in return for respecting
strict standards of environmental protection, animal welfare and
food safety ('cross compliance') and are free to produce
whatever they wish. To be eligible for coupled aid, cotton can
be grown only on land authorised by the Member State, using
authorised varieties of seed, and the cotton must be harvested
under normal growing conditions. This coupled element has been
kept to avoid abandonment of production.
Under the Single Payment Scheme, national base
areas that could benefit from the coupled aid are established as
follows:
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Greece: 370 000 ha
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Spain: 70 000 ha
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Portugal: 360 ha
The amount of the aid per eligible hectare shall
be in:
Background
Cotton is an arable crop used both for its
seeds, from which oil and oilseed cakes are made, and mainly for
its fibre. The cotton sector has strong regional importance in
the two main producing Member States. Around 76 % of the EU's
total output (about 1.45 million tons of raw cotton) is grown in
Greece. In 2005, 9.1 % of Greece's total agricultural output was
cotton while in Spain, the other main EU producer, cotton
contributed 1.3 %. A small amount of cotton is also grown in
Bulgaria; Portugal no longer grows cotton.
In the EU, most farms growing cotton are
characterised by their small size (Greece 4.5 ha and Spain 11.0
ha) and large number (79 700 in Greece and 9 500 in Spain). In
Greece, cotton holdings have a higher degree of specialisation;
the region of Thessaly is devoted almost exclusively to cotton
production.
Internationally, the EU is a minor player,
contributing only about 2 % to the world's total production of
cotton. This implies that the impact of EU production on the
evolution of world market prices has been negligible. This is
further strengthened by the fact that the EU does not use export
subsidies for this sector and offers duty free access.
Following requests received during the
stakeholder consultation, the Commission will look into the
creation of a "label of origin" to help promote EU cotton. In
March 2006, the Commission committed itself to undertake a
review of the rules on the protection of geographical
indications and designations of origin for agricultural products
and foodstuffs. The Commission will study the possibility of
including cotton in the scope of this Regulation.
The Commission will also analyse the possibility
of including certain cotton products entirely produced and
manufactured in the EU in the list of products eligible for
information and promotion actions and making budgetary resources
(at least € 3 million) available for this purpose.
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Council Regulation (EC) No 637/2008 of
23 June 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and
establishing national restructuring programmes for the cotton
sector
Available in:
                     
Proposal for a
Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003
establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the
common agricultural policy and establishing certain support
schemes for farmers, as regards the support scheme for cotton
(09/11/2007)
Available in:
Impact Assessment
Full text available [pdf] in
Summary available [pdf] in
Annexes available [pdf] in
Report on internet consultation available [pdf] in
Press release
available in:
External studies:
Study
on the Cotton Sector in the European Union
Évaluation des impacts sur l'environnement des mesures de la PAC
relatives au coton
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