In its conclusion, the Presidency noted the support from the SCA on the final compromise
text and announced it would sign the offer letter instantly for transmission to the chair of the
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI).
4.
Proposal for a Council Regulation fixing the production levies and the
coefficient for calculating the additional levy in the sugar sector for the
1999/2000 marketing year and fixing the production levies in the sugar
sector for the 2000/2001 marketing year
– Presentation by the Commission
13659/17 AGRI 575 AGRIORG 104 AGRIFIN 111 + ADD 1
The chair opened with a brief intro, recalling the historical precedent "Jülich II". He
informed the point will be treated by the forthcoming
AGRIFIN meeting on the
29th of
November and announced a Sugar
Working Party that will be held on the
8th of December upon the request of several delegations.
The COM (Mr Moegele) introduce the context and reasoning of the proposal for a Council
Regulation setting sugar levies retroactively for marketing years 1999/2000 and 2000/2001.
The Court Judgment invalidating two Commission Regulations (No 2267/2000 and No
1993/2001) has created a legal void that should be filled as soon as possible. Given the
structure of the CMO, the proposal falls under of Art 43(3) of the TFUE.
The Court concluded that, for these marketing years, sugar levies have been overestimated so
the sugar producer (and the beet growers) paid an unduly high level of fees as already
identified in "Jülich II" case, Therefore the Commission proposal by analogy follows the
approach used for the previous case, namely refixing, ex-post, the correct amount of sugar
levies. By fixing the corrected level of production levies, operators that paid production
levies for the years in question are entitled to claim back the difference unduly paid subject
to the application of national procedural rules for such cases.
The COM specified the maximum potential amount of reimbursement (116 million € plus
interest, roughly equivalent): the repayment of the principal will be treated under EU "own
resources" while the interests will be paid by EAGF. Mr Moegele explained the deadline of
30/09 for repayments in order to close it within 2018 budget and to avoid another year of
cumulated interest.
The chair and BG (as future presidency) confirmed the importance of a quick closing of the
exercise, if possible in January.
A long list of MS took the floor to comment the proposal, while none of them opposed to the
broad approach to implement the Court judgement. The main points raised were:
• difficulty to handle by national administrations and to retrieve data after 20 years, need
for guidance from COM (amounts per MS, interest, etc.) and deadline for reimbursement
is too short (IE, DE, AT, SE, EL, FI, DK). For simplification, SE asked for collective
reimbursement to producers' organisations and not to individual undertakings/farmers.
FR queried if recital (14) restrict reimbursement only to operators that already lodged
claims and proposes also to introduce the same derogation already used in the "Jülich II"
case as regards the date for establishment.
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• Most MS not involved at that time simply called for a quick solution and asked for
clarification on impact on contributions by different MS to EU own resources and EU
budget (SL, HU, LV, RO, SK, PL, CZ). LV requested the opinion of the Council LS on
why financial contributions of MS that were not EU members at that time are affected.
The COM underlined that implementing the judgement was an EU obligation and must be
financed by the EU (no alternatives). COM also admitted difficulty to retrieve data by MS
but the amounts were unduly paid by precise entities, so only those entities have the right to
reclaim back unduly paid levies in case duly supported by data. COM justified again the
deadline of 30/09/2018 for reimbursement on need to keep impact within 2018 budget. COM
explained financial mechanism: principal amount from own resources and interest from EU
budged within EAGF. Whereas (14) only state the obvious applicability of procedural rules
set by national legislation.
PRES concluded that the SCA took note of the information provided by the Commission and
confirmed the proposal will be put on the agenda of the AGRIFIN of 29/11 and a separate
Sugar WP on 8/12 with the aim to come back to CSA in January 2018 under BG presidency.
PRES asked for written comments from delegations by 30/11 to make progress in the WP.
Contact:
, DG AGRI, Unit G.4 Tel.:
5.
Organisation of future work
SCA meeting of 4 December
Commission Communication on future CAP: first exchange of views in preparation of next
Agrifish meeting
Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP): to be inscribed as an "I" item on the agenda of the meeting
(written procedure)
GI for spirit drinks (next steps): last working party on 22/11; text subsequently to be sent for
Council approval; aim is to reach a preliminary Council position in Jan. 2018; currently
awaiting compromise agreement (amendments) from EP
AGRIFISH meeting of 11&12 December
Commission Communication on future CAP: preliminary discussion, based on questions
(point to be taken by VP Katainen, Hogan being absent)
AOB points requested by
PL: "Pig meat market" and "update of sugar market situation" AOB point requested by
SK: “Uncompetitive practices and food chain” (note requesting
support from MS to follow)
OMNIBUS (information)
Coreper II agreement 15/12; letter sent to COMAGRI chair; on course to achieve objective.
Reporting:
, DG AGRI, Unit I.5 Tel.:
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