Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-12-Speech-1-131"
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"en.20010312.8.1-131"2
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"Mr President, extending the present European sugar regime is the best solution for producers, consumers and developing countries. The Daul report makes a sound case for extending the EU sugar regime, a regime which, compared to other areas of policy, is very cheap for the European Union. Setting aside specific regional policy in certain parts of the European Union and the funds needed to import from a large number of ACS countries, the policy is actually financed entirely by the farmers themselves.
It is therefore striking that the costs of this policy should form the subject of another dispute. The policy is said to be expensive and cost the consumers dearly. In fact, the first argument can be refuted on the basis of the agricultural budget, which demonstrates that expenditure on the policy is mainly earmarked for the measures with regard to ACP countries and regional policy, and not for the common organisation of the market itself. As for the second argument, one cannot compare apples and oranges, and that happens whenever a small proportion of the global market, mainly a surplus market, is compared with the consumer price in Europe.
For example, when internal European cereal prices were brought into line with the global market, it appeared that the consumer in Europe did not in any way benefit from the lower producer prices. In terms of meat prices, too, we observe that consumers hardly notice a reduction in prices for many producers.
It is therefore better to opt for a policy in which producers are given a valuable role in a tough competitive context, both in Europe and elsewhere, instead of a spurious position in the discussion between consumers and producers. But I expect that we will again be entering into this discussion during the mid-term review of European policy.
With regard to the ability of 48 of the poorest countries to access the EU market, we should do better to opt for a kind of ACP formula, rather than state before the event that a policy will be wiped out completely with this measure."@en1
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