§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made towards reducing European Union subsidies to tobacco growers in member countries; and what is the present amount of such subsidies.
Lord LucasIn 1992, when the Agriculture Council agreed reforms to the tobacco regime, the Commission estimated that these would reduce expenditure by 25 per cent. by 1997, from 1233 mecu (£873m*) to 903 mecu (£639m*). The reforms are now in place. The major changes were the removal in all but exceptional circumstances of export refunds and intervention, which had accounted for about 5 per cent. of expenditure on tobacco, and the reduction in the volume of tobacco eligible for support by around 18 per cent. The full impact of these changes is not transparent in the 1995 expenditure estimate of 1132 mecu (£906 million**) because of the effect of exchange rate fluctuations and the agrimonetary system in the meantime. The regime is to be reviewed again in 1996.
* £1 = 1.4131 ecu
** £1 = 1.2492 ecu