§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the effect £15.2 million of grant aid to the successful applicants under European Community Regulation 866/90 will have upon the relative competitive position of companies whose projects will not be supported.
§ Mr. CurryThis is an EC-funded scheme and the question facing the Government was whether to allow some United Kingdom applicants to benefit or whether to allow all the money to be spent on helping their competitors in other member states. Given the impact of the internal market in 1993 the effect on unsuccessful companies of United Kingdom participation is likely to be 239W minimal, but the overall effect of United Kingdom participation on the competitiveness of the United Kingdom industry will be to show a significant benefit. All companies submitting projects are told clearly that they have no guarantee of success given the limited resources available.
§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the total estimated expenditure of all applications under European Community Regulation 866/90(a) received by the MAFF and (b) recommended by the MAFF to Brussels for the latest round of grant awards.
§ Mr. CurryThe total amount of grant aid sought in applications submitted to MAFF in respect of projects in England for the latest round of awards under EC regulation 866/90 was £27.3 million. Of these, projects seeking a total of £6.8 million in grant were recommended to the Commission.
§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications under European Community Regulation 866/90 were received by his Department; and how many were subsequently recommended to Brussels for the latest round of awards.
§ Mr. CurryThe total number of eligible applications for grant received by MAFF for projects in England for the latest round of awards under EC regulation 866/90 was 93. Of these, 20 were recommended to the EC Commission.
§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the extent to which FEOGA grants militate against the creation of a level playing field for fair trade in food within the EC.
§ Mr. CurryEuropean Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund grants are paid in all EC countries, and are made according to clearly defined social and economic criteria.
§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what criteria were applied in assessing United Kingdom applications for grant aid in the latest round of awards under EC regulations 866/90.
§ Mr. CurryIn order to decide which projects to put forward to Brussels under this scheme we have to apply a range of criteria derived from the appropriate EC legislation, in particular EC regulation 866/90 and Commission decision 90/342/EEC. All projects must demonstrate direct benefits to primary producers and special priority is given to projects which improve marketing structures, assist the marketing of high value products, involve substantial technological innovation, reduce the seasonality of supply or cut the costs of prepared products, the recycling of waste or use of organic produce.
§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications were received in each of the Community countries for grant in the latest round of awards under EC regulations 866/90; how many were successful in each country and what was the value of awards in each member country.
§ Mr. CurryThe information we have through our involvement in the European Commission's management committee under which this grant scheme is administered is shown in the table.
240W
Member state Successful projects Total value of awards mecu £ million approx. United Kingdom 53 21.7 15.1 Netherlands 54 6.5 4.5 Germany 124 11.4 7.9 Belgium 10 2.9 2.0 France 108 26.2 18.3 Denmark 15 5.1 3.6 Greece 15 13.9 9.7 Portugal 46 22.5 15.7 Spain 146 44.0 30.7 Ireland 35 31.1 21.7 Luxembourg 4 0.7 0.5 We have no information on the number of applications received in other member states. No programme for Italy has yet been agreed.