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Bullfighting

Answer

[holding answer 26 January 2007]: Bulls kept for bullfighting are eligible for common agricultural policy (CAP) subsidy payments under the beef special premium scheme (BSPS).The 2003 CAP reform agreement required member states to introduce the decoupled single payment scheme between 2005 and 2007. However, the agreement also provided the option to forgo some of the single payment scheme funds and use them to retain some of the old coupled premium schemes.The three countries most likely to make payments to bulls kept for bullfighting (Spain, Portugal and France) did not take up the option to retain the BSPS and it therefore closed in those countries at the end of 2005. Only Denmark, Finland and Sweden have retained the BSPS.Payments under the BSPS are made to eligible bulls and steers and are subject to regional ceilings in each member state. Payments are worth €210 per eligible bull and €150 per steer (on which two payments can be made). The regional ceilings applied to Spain, France and Portugal for the five years before the scheme’s closure were:

	Country
	Spain	Portugal	France
2001	713,999	175,075	1,754,732
2002	643,525	160,720	1,734,779
2003	643,525	160,720	1,734,779
2004	713,999	175,075	1,754,732
2005	713,999	175,075	1,754,732

If claims exceeded these ceilings then payments were scaled back to control expenditure. It is not possible, however, to identify which payments within these totals were made to bulls kept for bullfighting.There is also an ongoing proposal, raised within discussions of the EU budget, to exclude bulls kept for bullfighting from the BSPS. The UK Government have, and will continue to, support this proposal.In view of the above there is unlikely to be any direct support for bulls kept for bullfighting in 2007.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

456 c442-3W;456 c444-5W; 111990

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Agriculture Subsidies Bullfighting

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk