Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-15-Speech-3-347"
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"en.20060315.26.3-347"2
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"Mr President, I am glad that the Commissioner is here to represent the Commission at today’s debate on this report. Her colleague, Commissioner Fischer Boel, cannot be present, but that should not prevent us from making this a good discussion.
We considered referring this matter back to committee out of pure annoyance, because, once again, we have been overlooked and our expert work is being ignored. However, we believe that this would project an outward lack of unity on our part in the WTO proceedings, and enable others to say: aha, they are not even agreed among themselves. Since we are in favour of strengthening and securing the EU position, we shall let it pass, but we should like to make clear where the Council’s weaknesses lie in some regards, and would ask Commissioner Kroes to communicate that in her role as Commissioner, so that she reconsiders her decisions.
The Commissioner said that this is not the beginning of a legislative process, but that we are just responding to a request from the WTO. The beginnings of a legislative framework for quality assurance came in 1992, as much as 14 years ago, but, of course, that was not the start of high-quality production in the areas that were protected at that time. It was rather the case that, as with organic farming, the matter of the products at issue here had been introduced onto the market long ago, over a period of decades, by producers, and proceeded to gain consumer acceptance. There then followed harmonisation and streamlining measures, clarifications and safeguards.
With regard to quality policy, there are only two areas within agriculture that are designated ‘quality’. These are the area under discussion today, and organic farming. Everything else is covered by the concept of food safety. Here, however, we are talking about and focusing on quality, in particular.
As the Commissioner has already mentioned, this is no trifling matter, it is a billion-euro business. Granting regions and businesses protection of geographical indications, designations of origin or specialities creates genuine added value. It is understandable that others will covet this added value.
The dispute is with the United States, in particular – and when I say United States, I mean the large multinationals. These are looking very carefully at whether the products now being protected here as designations of origin can perhaps be incorporated into their empires as trademarks. In exactly the same way as Coca-Cola, they want to include Feta cheese, Parmesan, Spreewälder Gurken (Spreewald Gherkins), Karlsbader Oblaten (Karlsbad Wafers), Thüringer Rostbratwurst, and also Tiroler Speck – from both Austria and South Tyrol (Südtiroler Speck) – with their trademarks; not because they consider them particularly good, but because there is money to be made from them. That is why they, too, have joined the discussion in the WTO, and now we are presenting our response.
The good thing about the discussion is that the WTO has said from the outset, as a matter of principle, that our rules are in accordance with its own rules. What is not in accordance with its rules, and where improvements need to be made, is the issue of third country access to these protected quality indications. We are making good this shortcoming, and I also think that this makes sense.
I should also like to point out, however, that another kind of desire also comes to the fore here. For example, producers of Parma ham or Tiroler Speck may think to themselves: if we were to buy the pigs on the wider market, it would be cheaper than having to produce them in the region or stipulating that the regions from which we obtain them be specifically geared towards such production – because this would naturally mean an increase in production costs.
If we do not do that, however, we run the risk, in the international discussions within the WTO – and the multinationals will keep on and on at us about it – of lapsing into arbitrariness, of undermining our own quality indications and thus ultimately losing the protection. This being the case, it would be a highly dubious business to believe it is possible to buy raw materials at cheaper prices, and that is why we have stipulated and are stipulating that there be a special relationship between the regions in this regard.
By way of conclusion, I should like to say a few words of a procedural nature. As the Commissioner is also aware, the Council has already made a decision. We are once again holding a discussion here despite the fact that everything has already been decided, and that is unacceptable. The matter has to be debated first. I hope that we can also make that clear in the Constitution once it has been ratified."@en1
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