Regulation (EC) No 1221/97 and aid for beekeeping

9.10.2003

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3079/03
by Torben Lund (PSE)
to the Commission

Regulation (EC) No 1221/97[1] includes rules for improving the production and marketing of honey. Nevertheless, beekeeping is under pressure in several places in Europe and numbers have dropped sharply in several areas. For this among other reasons, a number of Member States are attempting to improve the situation for beekeepers by subsidising research, etc. In Denmark, however, the government has quite paradoxically proposed eliminating aid for beekeeping despite the grave situation in this sector.

 

This being so, will the Commission provide an update on how all the different Member States aid their national beekeeping industry and, at the same time, give an assessment as to how Denmark’s draft finance bill for 2004 can be reconciled with Regulation (EC) No 1221/97 and other relevant EU legislation? Lastly, will it indicate how the EU promotes the situation of beekeepers through various schemes and explain forthcoming EU proposals to improve both the situation of beekeepers and honey production in the EU?

• [1]  OJ L 173, 1.7.1997, p.1.

OJ C 70 E, 20/03/2004