§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will summarise the use made by any Government of a member state of the European Community of any provision they make for national support for the coal mining industry, stating the approximate price and percentage assistance per tonne, and per gigajoule respectively.
§ Mr. Eggar[holding answer 19 October 1992]: The amount of subsidy for current caol production in 1990 for relevant European Community member states was as follows:
£ per tonne Belgium 55 France 10 Germany 39 Spain 19 Source: European Commission.
The United Kingdom does not provide subsidies for current production. Agreed Community policy is to restructure the coal industries towards economic viability and to eliminate such subsidies.
§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the articles in any treaty of the European Communities and any regulation or directive applied in this respect which permit any national supports for the deep coal mining industry, or public support for any form of electricity generation.
§ Mr. Eggar[holding answer 19 October 1992]: Article 4 of the treaty of Paris, which established the European Coal and Steel Community treaty, declared that aid to member states' coal industries was incompatible with the common market in coal. Nevertheless, a series of decisions of the Council have recognised that in order to adapt the level of production it was necessary to allow such aid, and laid down the conditions which should be satisfied, which included the authorisation of the Commission. The current decision—2064/86/ECSC—stipulates that for aid to be authorised by the Commission, it must help to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
- Improvement of competitivity of the coal industry, which contributes to assure a better security of supply.
- Creating new capacities provided that they are economically viable.
- Solving the social and regional problems related to developments in the coal industry.