Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-16-Speech-2-028"
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"en.20010116.3.2-028"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the reports from the Court of Auditors have been given a whole new relevance by the current BSE crisis. The European agricultural policy must be given a thorough going over. BSE is only the tip of the iceberg. Subsidisation of quantity increases, overproduction and then more subsidies for reducing surpluses, not only is all this very difficult for the ordinary citizen to comprehend, it is also extremely susceptible to fraud, and the quota regime cannot begin to cushion the effect. This is very clearly borne out by the McCartin report.
It is to the rapporteur’s credit that he constantly draws attention to this, and not just in times such as these. Unfortunately, Parliament does not have full co-determination powers in agricultural matters and is therefore only able to make very limited use of the political room for manoeuvre. The decisions are taken in the Council of Ministers; they are reached behind closed doors by the national Agricultural Ministers, with their diverse client interests. Yet whilst they reserve the right to make the decisions, they are not prepared to actually take on responsibility. When it comes to errors, misdemeanours, irregularities or fraud, they are not the ones who immediately take responsibility; no, they always point the finger at Brussels, i.e. the EU instead.
There has to be a fundamental change on this score. Not only is control called for, but also political co-determination for Parliament in all areas of the agricultural policy. We need more transparency and openness. This is not about working against the farmers; it is about fighting for a different kind of consumer policy, in the interests of the farmers. Mr McCartin has already mentioned the right key words in his report. What we are talking about here is the issue of direct aid and cofinancing. Something needs to change here, also in the light of eastwards enlargement, if we want to pursue the agricultural policy in such a way that it will lend itself to eastwards enlargement. Even after the Nice Summit, it is clear that the Council is incapable of actually solving these problems, and so to conclude, I would like to stress once again, and this will be a matter of concern to the whole of Parliament, that Parliament needs full co-determination and codecision rights in agricultural policy."@en1
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