Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 April 2018
1081. Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will request a company (details supplied) to consider foregoing the compensation payment due to it under the 2017 judgment of the European Court of Justice on the excess levies paid by sugar processors and in turn pass on this compensation payment to the sugar beet growers. [15833/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI know the Deputy will already be aware that the repayment of sugar levies fall due to be repaid to Greencore and the former beet growers as a result of a court case brought to the European Court of Justice however and for the Deputy’s information I wish to restate the current position.
On 9 February 2017, the European Court of Justice delivered a judgment declaring invalid the EU Commission Regulations fixing the production levies and the coefficient for calculating the additional levy in the sugar sector for the marketing year 1999/2000 and for the marketing year 2000/2001. The Court ruled that the EU Commission was incorrect in calculating the annual levies set for the period in question. The Court also found that the method used by the EU Commission to fix the levies was incorrect because it led to an over-estimation of the costs to be covered and consequently overcharged to Greencore and the former beet growers. The levies for the marketing years in question, set by EU Regulation, provided for a self-financing system for the sugar sector by means of flexible production levies. Under EU Regulations the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector was based on the operation of a quota system on the principle that producers should bear full financial responsibility for the losses incurred each marketing year due to disposing of surplus sugar over the production quota allocated.
A new Council Regulation (EU) 2018/264 signed into law on the 19 February 2018 fixed the production levies and the coefficient for calculating the additional levy in the sugar sector for the 1999/2000 marketing year and fixing the production levies in the sugar sector for the 2000/2001 marketing year, giving effect to the Court decision. The former sugar processor, Greencore and the sugar beet growers for the years in question will be reimbursed in due course.
You will appreciate as Minister, I must fully comply with the judgement of the European Court.
