§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effect the fall in the value of the dollar against the European currency unit since the beginning of 1985 will have on forecast expenditure under the European Economic Community budget on agricultural products; and which items will be most affected.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe rate of the dollar against the European currency unit remains higher than the assumption made by the Commission in preparing its revised budget estimate for 1985.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for 1973 and each of the past five years the total amount spent under the European Economic Community budget on each agricultural product.
§ Mr. JoplingInformation on expenditure from the guarantee section of the European agricultural guidance and guarantee fund for each agricultural product for 1973
Year Norm price* (ecu/Kg) Premium* (ecu/Kg) Intervention* price (ecu/Kg) Intervention quantity (tonnes) Cost of regime (mecu) 1973 †1.749 †1.047 †1.575 1,049 †118.3 1980 3.286 1.973 2.923 4,000 309.3 1981 3.480 2.120 3.075 10,036 361.8 1982 3.841 2.352 3.224 10,624 622.6 1983 4.125 2.530 3.461 ‡4,000 671.3 1984 4.169 2.538 3.544 n.a. 776.6 Source: EC Commission financial reports.
* These figures are averages for the 26 varieties of tobacco grown in the European Community.
† These figures are in units of account/Kg.
‡ Provisional.
The European Community is 48 per cent. self-sufficient in tobacco. This figure has remained fairly static over the last decade.