Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-25-Speech-3-477"
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"en.20091125.28.3-477"2
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"Madam President, as one of the co-authors of this question, can I just support Jim Nicholson’s plea, regretting that the Socialists, in particular, who are now crying crocodile tears about this issue for populist reasons, refused to support a resolution on this important issue. Sometimes late at night we get cross, but sometimes it is justified.
Commissioner, thank you for your very long and detailed presentation, which I appreciate very much, but can I just say that you missed the elephant in the room. I will be blunt. You were forced to act only because of pressure from, and action by, the Irish Farmers’ Association, which was reported in the Irish Farmers’ Journal and followed up by this House. Political pressure brought you to your senses.
I listened in detail to your speech, took notes and will read it again. However, I really would like you to accept that you were forced to act. Can I draw your attention to your own figures: it is quite staggering that in 2007, there were 10 000 farms eligible to export while currently, only 1 700 are approved to export. Does that tell us that the others should not have been exporting at all? There are serious questions which we raise and rightly raise in this House about this importation.
I have a little time left, so let me stretch this with two points. I do not have faith in the current Commission to deal adequately and responsibly with this issue. However, I am putting the next College of Commissioners – both President and members – on notice that I and others in this House will pursue this to the very end, because we have got to persuade and cajole our producers to meet high standards. They will revolt in time if they see that those standards are debased by imports from third countries.
You may not realise the anger that is on the ground, but let me tell you it is there. We will also face this issue over cereal imports, with tighter pesticide regulations in Europe, and we will face it on animal welfare regulations when we ban caged-egg production in a few years’ time and imports of powdered egg from small cages.
Rest assured, Commissioner, that it may be late but we are wide awake, and the next Commission had better beware."@en1
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