Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-02-Speech-2-339"
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"en.20030902.14.2-339"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Izquierdo, thank you for your speech.
It is true that you have made a series of comments, a series of specific proposals for new classifications, new data which I believe is essential we take into account in future reforms, in those changes which will unquestionably take place.
From the Commission’s point of view, it would not be a good idea to begin this debate before the approval of the regulation, since this would delay the whole process and would render the decision-making more complex. What I can guarantee, however, is that the comments of your committee and your own personal comments will be taken into account in future changes which we are going to introduce and, clearly, they will be taken into account so that these changes can take place.
The final point is the euro. The concern is that, in some cases, rather than using the national currency as we propose, the euro should be used for everybody. However, this solution would raise a technical problem of some importance.
It is true that in the countries which have currently adopted the euro this type of problem does not arise. The problem arises for the countries which have not adopted the euro. To decide on an exchange rate
for the calculation of statistics which are essentially produced in national currency, however, would mean using a theoretical exchange rate which does not correspond to reality. This is why, from a technical point of view, we believe it is more reasonable for information to be received in national currency and then once the periods the information relates to have elapsed, and once we know what the average exchange rate of the euro is in relation to the national currency, we can transfer those accounts from the national currency to the euro.
I believe the comments I have made correspond to your concerns and I believe it is very important, however, that the regulation is adopted very rapidly, so that we can begin the preparatory work necessary for the accession countries, which will provide us, from the moment they are members, with agricultural statistics which are as comparable as possible and which are of the highest possible quality.
This proposal for a regulation, submitted by the Commission, is intended to guarantee that the economic accounts for agriculture continue to be defined within the appropriate time limits and are of sufficient quality for all twenty-five Member States of the Union.
The proposed draft regulation simply consolidates, as you have rightly pointed out, the practice which has existed for many years, since for a long time the accounts for agriculture have been established by the Union on the basis of a gentlemen’s agreement between the Member States and Eurostat.
The proposed regulation does not therefore mean an additional burden for the Member States, but it simply intends to ensure the continuity of work and extend it to the new member countries of the Union.
I believe we should take pleasure in the fact that the proposed regulation has been well received by Parliament, both in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development – which has fundamental responsibility for this issue – and by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in their debates.
The Council’s Special Committee for Agriculture has already approved the Commission’s proposal, with certain linguistic changes. Furthermore, the approval of the proposal without amendments by the European Parliament would allow the regulation to be adopted rapidly, before enlargement takes place, with sufficient time to provide the new Member States with a solid legal basis for independent agricultural accounts for the monitoring of the CAP.
While I am making this request and communicating it to Parliament, however, I am not forgetting your concerns. If I have understood correctly, the concerns you have stressed relate to three specific issues. Firstly, a clearer definition of the methodology; secondly, a clearer definition of the classifications of the accounts and thirdly, taking account of the euro when calculating the accounts.
With regard to the first point, there is concern for the methodology. The regulation, according to our interpretation, explicitly proposes and authorises the adaptation of the methodology of the accounts to the different aspects of the reform of the CAP, which is what you are concerned about. This will be done by means of a comitology procedure, as laid down in the regulation.
Your second point of concern is perhaps the most important one: to what extent the current accounts reflect that reality of the new agricultural policy which we wish to define by means of other criteria."@en1
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