Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-06-Speech-1-138"
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"en.20050606.17.1-138"2
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".
Mr President, at the outset let me apologise for my fellow Commissioner, Mrs Fischer Boel. She has been delayed, but will be here before the end of the debate.
I wish to thank the Members of the European Parliament again for their positive and constructive contribution to European rural policy.
I wish to begin by thanking Mrs Schierhuber and the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development for all their work on this report.
The committee adopted the report with 129 amendments. I shall comment only on some of the major points. Some amendments reduced the minimum percentages of funding for the three axes, maintained the proposed funding for LEADER and eliminated the reserve for this approach. This should give more flexibility to the programming priorities of the Member States. I understand this need and I also welcome the fact that the European Parliament agrees on the need for minimum percentages. This is crucial if we want to ensure balanced programmes that address the wide variety of challenges in rural areas.
The Commission is prepared to accept the reduction of the minimum percentages. However, I consider that the reduction for Axis 3 – quality of life and diversification of the rural economy – from 15 to 8% is too large, and would affect negatively the necessary balance between the axes, i.e. Amendments 17, 43, 44, 115, 117 and 118. Please do not forget that measures under Axis 3, if used correctly, could contribute significantly to promoting economic growth and job creation in rural areas. This is clearly in the interests of our farmers and their families and is closely linked to what we want to achieve under the Lisbon Strategy.
Other amendments bring together the strategic and operational planning and reduce reporting procedures to two reports for the whole financial period – Amendments 34 to 41. I am sceptical on the first point, since the strategy would precede the operational planning. However, I am prepared to compromise on a reduced frequency of the strategic monitoring, biannual instead of annual. I would stress that robust reporting is essential for accountability and for explaining to Europe's citizens the contribution of our policy to agriculture and rural areas.
I can in principle accept the main amendments to Axis 1 – Amendments 54, 63, 65 (in part), 66 and 67. They concern the extension of support for young farmers to subsidised loans, the requirement that forest management plans be a function of the size of the holding, the extension of support to minimum- sized enterprises for the processing and marketing of agricultural products (in the forestry sector, however, the support will remain limited to micro-enterprises), the inclusion of reparcelling among eligible support for infrastructures, focussing predominantly on operations aimed at improving competitiveness, support for the cooperation between actors in the food chain and for the transfer of knowledge.
I come now to Axis 2, which concerns Amendments 73, 79 and parts of 69, 76 and 81. The Commission is in principle prepared to accept or partially accept amendments on: the inclusion of the conservation of genetic diversity, the inclusion of payments linked to the Water Framework Directive, not to consider the requirements for pesticide and fertiliser use as additional to mandatory requirements but as part of them, a more flexible approach towards the duration of agri-environmental commitments, the eligibility of high nature value areas among non-productive investments, and the inclusion of loss of income criteria for Natura 2000 payments in forestry.
Finally, some of the proposed amendments are difficult to accept for various reasons. A number of them go beyond the scope of the Commission's proposal and existing norms, thus risking diluting their policy effects. Others make unnecessary specifications which are already included in more general concepts.
In conclusion, I can accept or partially accept some of the fundamental amendments proposed in your report. The other amendments I cannot accept."@en1
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