Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-09-17-Speech-4-007"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20090917.2.4-007"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"−
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the dairy farming sector is going through one of the deepest and most serious crises of the last few decades: the fall in the price of milk and the more general crisis in the dairy farming market have now become a source of concern throughout Europe. This is a cyclical crisis, caused by the difficult economic situation, which has led to a decline in milk consumption and created stagnant markets, with the prices paid to producers in free fall.
The prices paid to milk producers have plummeted everywhere, averaging 24 cents per litre within the European Union. Many economic operators are in an even more serious situation, as they get prices of less than 20-21 cents, when their production costs come to at least 40 cents per litre.
Other markets, such as the cereal, olive oil and fruit and vegetable markets, are showing some alarming signs too. On this front, first of all, we should continue to make use of all the measures at our disposal so as to stabilise the market and to stimulate an upturn in consumption, but at the same time we need to be able to look to the future with medium- and long-term policies and to do everything possible to identify acceptable and lasting solutions aimed at minimising the risk of price fluctuations.
In this context the Commission proposals extending the intervention period for butter and skimmed milk powder have been welcomed and accepted within the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, as the unanimous vote of 2 September demonstrates. We believe, however, that these proposals are not enough to mitigate the serious consequences of the crisis in the sector. That is why, still in relation to the adoption of the European Commission’s proposal, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development has adopted an amendment to my proposal that also reintroduces aid for private storage of cheese, which was abolished under the health check on the common agricultural policy in November 2008.
This was a unanimous decision, Madam President, Commissioner, representing what are, in essence, identical views shared by the members of the Committee on Agriculture, which I have the honour of chairing, and expressing our desire to send out a strong signal to the Council and the Commission at a sensitive time for an extremely important sector for European agriculture.
As well as being a first important demonstration of the positive leadership that we as the European Parliament want to provide when looking ahead to codecision in agricultural matters too, this is a measure that can also offer immediate help to dairy farmers, who are grappling with an increasingly difficult market and with an obvious and dramatic fall in sales.
However, these initial measures, on which we will vote today, are not enough to support the producers in crisis, and that is why the Committee on Agriculture, through an oral question and a resolution on which we are preparing to vote, is calling on the European Commission to introduce new and effective measures to combat the crisis and to support the sector.
We want to encourage and at the same time support the European Commission in the process of deciding what must be done to end the crisis in the European dairy farming sector once and for all. In this sense we hope that the Commission will provide an exhaustive answer to our questions and will take our proposals seriously, so that interinstitutional cooperation produces the results that European agriculture deserves and shows its solidarity by offering practical support to European farmers in crisis, who need our help today."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples