The committee adopted the report by Jean-Claude FRUTEAU (PES, FR) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure:
- the new Member States should be allowed to grant beet growers compensatory aid for sugar beet outside the simplified single area payment scheme;
- sugar-beet growing for the production of bio-ethanol should be authorised on hectares eligible for set-aside entitlements;
- the amount of aid for energy crops (including beet) should be increased to EUR 80 per hectare, with a maximum of 2 200 hectares being eligible for such aid;
- producers of sugar cane used for sugar production should also qualify for a sugar payment aimed at compensating for the proposed drop in prices;
- MEPs said that the various figures in the Annexes (national ceilings and payments per hectare) for compensation for farmers' loss of income should be reviewed in order to bring them into line with the less radical price cuts which the committee had proposed in relation to the regulation on the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector (see CNS/2005/0118). The committee wanted to see a compensation rate of 90% of the loss of income, in accordance with measures taken in the past for other sectors.