Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-368"
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"en.20070904.29.2-368"2
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"Mr President, I shall be no exception in this debate in offering my group’s congratulations to the rapporteur for an excellent piece of work which has achieved the fairly unusual feat of keeping everyone pretty well happy. I would also praise the Commission for acting on this ahead of the health check, because this is a good piece of work which is long overdue.
I shall summarise our own view on the initial comments here from the National Farmers’ Union of Scotland briefing. The proposed changes do not necessarily have a direct impact on farmers, but they will lead to simplification, cost savings and efficiencies further up the chain, all of which will improve dairy sector competitiveness and as such should lead to an indirect benefit to farmers through the marketplace.
In my view, the simplification of the school milk regime is particularly to be welcomed. What better way to fulfil so many agricultural, economic and health aims than by encouraging the drinking of milk and milk products by Europe’s children? Making the system more logical is, if we are honest, long overdue.
In praising this package I must agree with my Scottish – if not political – colleague, Mr Stevenson, in pointing to the elephant in the room that is the poor prices that farmers still have to endure, because the supply chain is beyond breaking point and too many of those involved in the market are abusing their position. We in the Commission and Parliament here tonight have done our part by making the system simpler. We could just as well ask why it was so complicated in the first place, but we have done our job tonight. Now national and EU competition authorities must intervene forcefully on the side of farmers who, because of de facto abuses of dominant positions in the market by supermarkets in particular, are continuing to receive a pittance for their quality products. As the Commissioner says, the health check is a good opportunity, because until the EU takes action to tackle that elephant in the room, all the good efforts like this package will continue to be overshadowed and lose out in the noise."@en1
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