HC Deb 09 May 1985 vol 78 cc499-502W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the cost per cow of all the European Economic Community subventions to dairy products, the cost per animal of the subventions to beef, sheep and pigs and the cost per tonne of the subventions on other crops.

Mr. MacGregor

Information on European Commission expenditure in recent years on the main agricultural products is summarised in "The Agricultural Situation in the Community—1984 Report" published by the Commission which is in the Library. The report also contains details of livestock numbers and crop production.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each common agricultural policy product the amount exported with financial aid from the European Economic Community budget in 1973 and in each of the past five years.

Mr. MacGregor

Information on the volumes of exports receiving aid from the Community budget is not readily available. However details of Community exports of agricultural products for the latest years are summarised in "The Agricultural Situation in the Community—1984 Report" published by the Commission. Information for the earlier years is contained in the reports for 1981 and 1975.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the proposed guide and intervention prices under the common agricultural policy as a percentage of the relevant United Kingdom price in 1972–73.

Mr. MacGregor

The Commission's proposals for CAP prices for 1985–86 are contained in European document 4582/85 (explanatory memorandum of 28 February 1985); guarantee prices obtaining in the United Kingdom in 1972–73 are contained in the "Annual Review and Determination of Guarantees 1972" (Cmnd. 4928). Copies are available in the Library of the House.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the cost in 1973 and in the latest available year of the European Economic Community subventions on the various cereal crops, sugar beet and rapeseed in terms of cost per acre of crop produced, together with the corresponding United Kingdom figure for the average of the years 1967–68 to 1970–71.

Mr. MacGregor

Information about European Community expenditure on the main agricultural products is summarised in the series of annual reports entitled "The Agricultural Situation in the Community" published by the Commission: these reports also contain information on the areas of individual crops produced and more detailed analyses are available on the Eurostat computer data base, CRONOS. Copies are in the Library. Detailed information on expenditure on agriculture by the United Kingdom exchequer and on crop areas is contained in the "Annual Review of Agriculture" for the appropriate years. Copies of this are also available in the Library.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether the agreement reached in the European Council on the restriction of agricultural spending relates only to expenditure under the guarantee section of the European agricultural guidance and guarantee fund; and if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the percentage of the European Economic Community budget accounted for by this section in each year since 1981 and the percentage implied in the budget for 1985.

Mr. MacGregor

The financial guideline for agriculture, which forms part of the Council's conclusions on budgetary discipline, applies to the guarantee section of the European agricultural guidance and guarantee fund, excluding fisheries. The percentage shares of total budget taken by this expenditure (titles 1 and 2) since 1981 are as follows:

Per cent.
1981 62
1982 61
1983 65
1984 *67
1985 †71
* Supplementary and Amending Budget No. 1
† Draft Budget

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the increase in agricultural spending under the common agricultural policy in 1984 and budgeted for 1985 compared with the increase in other spending under the European Economic Community budget.

Mr. MacGregor

The information requested is as follows:

(mecu)
Total expenditure under the common agricultural policy Other expenditure
1983 Outturn 16,634 7,676
1984 Supplementary and Amending Budget No. 1 19,121 8,128

Total expenditure under the common agricultural policy Other expenditure
Change in 1984 from 1983 + 2,847* + 452†
1985 Draft Budget 20,751 7,179
Change in 1985 from 1984 + 1,630‡ −949||
* + 15 per cent.
† + 6 per cent.
‡ + 9 per cent.
|| − 12 per cent.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1970 the percentage increase in the European Economic Community and in the United Kingdom of gross domestic product expenditure on food and the increase in spending under the common agricultural policy.

Mr. MacGregor

Details of expenditure on food in individual member states of the European Community are available from the databank of the European Commission (CRONOS). Expenditure under the common agricultural policy is published in the reports of the EC Court of Auditors and in the financial reports on the EAGGF. This information is available in the Library of the House.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the increase in expenditure proposed for agriculture under the European Economic Community budget for 1985 and the distribution of the increase within and between the main sections of the agricultural budget.

1984 Mr. MacGregor

The following table sets out the increase foreseen in expenditure under the common agricultural policy between 1984 and 1985.

MECU
European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) 1984 1985 Increase 1984–1985
(a) guarantee section
cereals and rice 1,698 2,415 + 717
sugar 1,631 1,689 + 58
olive oil 1,096 897 −199
oilseeds and proteins 871 1,210 + 339
textiles 108 213 + 105
fruit and vegetables 1,455 1,356 −99
wine 1,223 998 −225
tobacco 776 841 + 65
milk 5,442 6,602 + 1,160
beef 2,547 2,460 −87
sheepmeat 433 451 + 18
pigmeat 196 163 −33
eggs and poultry 70 124 + 54
processed goods 382 402 + 20
MCAs and ACAs 376 110 −266
minor products 51 54 + 3
clearance of accounts −25 −150 −125
fish 16 24 + 8
other measures 0 120 + 120
Total Guarantee 18,346 19,955 + 1,633
(b) guidance section 620 658 + 38
Non-EAGGF agricultural expenditure 125 114 −11
Total CAP 19,091 20,751 + 1,660

Source:

(a) EAGGP guarantee—provisional outturn from EC Commission working document

(b) Other sections—supplementary and amending budget No. 1 (outturn figures not yet available).

1985—Draft budget established by Council on 23 April 1985