Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-09-Speech-1-207"
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"en.20090309.23.1-207"2
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"Madam President, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Petre, for this report. The European policy on the quality of agricultural products represents a major issue for farmers, those involved in the food chain in general and, of course, consumers. This is why the Commission adopted the Green Paper on the quality of agricultural products and consulted the stakeholders before drawing up the legislative proposals.
The Commission welcomes your report, Mrs Petre, as well as the discussions that have taken place in the various European Parliament committees. These discussions are in addition to the 560 contributions received during the consultation period introduced to help the Commission to define the strategic directions which are to be published in a communication scheduled for the end of May this year.
The Commission intends to help Europe’s farmers to communicate the demanding conditions of production with which they comply. I said that the proposal to indicate the place of production has received very little support, with even less support for the idea of a European logo showing compliance with European standards. On the other hand, there is a demand for ‘country of origin’ labelling.
The Commission welcomes the support for its policy of simplification toward trading standards. The Commission has always been in favour of simplifying legislation where necessary. Therefore, Mrs Petre, you spur us on and encourage us to continue our work.
The Commission has taken note of the request to define optional reserved terms, such as ‘farm’ or ‘mountain’. I can tell you that this is also the view of the majority of those responding to the Green Paper.
As for geographic information, the Commission shares your view. The procedures should be simplified or, at least, speeded up. We are currently looking at the responses to the Green Paper to decide how to do this.
The question of an agency remains open. In the meantime, the advantages and disadvantages of such a body need to be studied with care.
As for the negotiations with the WTO, I can assure you that recognition of the European quality systems remains firmly on the Commission’s agenda. A consensus appears to be on the horizon on the need to harmonise, to set up a framework for the certification systems and arrive at mutual recognition between these systems. Guidelines might be sufficient and would avoid too many administrative constraints.
This is a first step towards a true quality policy for agricultural products. The Commission is now impatiently awaiting the next steps and the fruitful discussions that we are expecting and speaking for my colleague Mrs Fischer Boel, I assure you that the Commission will involve Parliament in all the coming actions that it will take in this field. It is a field whose importance you have correctly emphasised, Mrs Petre, not only for the producers but also for all of us as consumers."@en1
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