Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-09-Speech-2-372"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I should like to thank Mr Daul and Mr Lavarra and the co-rapporteurs, Mrs Rodríguez Ramos, Mr Berlato and Mr Mayer for their reports, and the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development for their contributions.
Back in July of last year, the Council of Agriculture Ministers invited the Commission to prepare reform proposals for additional product categories in accordance with the same principles on which the previous reforms had been based. As a result of this, the Commission drafted proposals for cotton, tobacco, olive oil and hops, and these proposals are the subject of today’s debate.
The aims have remained the same: we want to make these sectors more competitive and sustainable, to simplify administration, to create a more WTO-compatible system and to promote rural development. With regard to the budgetary effects, the Council decided that the Commission was to present a proposal with no net budgetary impact. Our proposals fulfil all these aims and conditions.
As in the previous reforms, the key element in these is ‘decoupling’, severing the link between production volumes and direct producer support, although the Commission, in order to take the greatest possible account of environmental and social sensitivities, has proposed partial decoupling in some instances. As with the previous reforms, however, the prerequisite for the payment of the full amounts is that farmers meet the requirements of cross-compliance and good farming practice. Provision is also made in these proposals for a transfer of resources to rural development. The radical restructuring of the sectors under discussion also enables us finally to abolish some elements of previous market-organisation regimes that have now become obsolete, such as the export refunds for olive oil.
I am well aware of the socio-economic and environmental significance of the crops we are debating today. With two and a half million producers, olive oil commands a prominent position in Mediterranean agriculture. Cotton plays a key role in some parts of Greece and Spain. Hops are a special crop of primarily regional importance, while tobacco, though an important element in the agricultural and employment structures of many regions, is engulfed in an economic crisis on the one hand and is associated with an unhealthy lifestyle on the other.
I believe that the proposals on the table in their entirety respond to the needs of the Community, and for this reason I am opposed to the divergences from the original text that the Daul report proposes. For all four crop categories, the proposal is the result of careful reflection and is in tune with the GAP reform package that was adopted last June. It gives farmers the freedom and flexibility to farm their land as they see fit and to take advantage of market opportunities, and at the same time it takes account of environmental and social concerns.
Let me also point out that it is important for us to take the requisite decisions, since unless a decision is made on this package, including tobacco, we run the risk of being unable to provide any financial support at all to tobacco-growers next year, because the existing arrangement expires at the end of this year. I do not believe that such an approach would be in anyone’s interest. For this reason, I can only invite the House to take the necessary decisions."@en1
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