Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-19-Speech-4-052-000"
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"en.20120119.3.4-052-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to see this topic addressed in plenary and I would like to offer my thanks to Mr Bové. It really is a very important issue that we are debating today, be it for producers, processors, for trade or for consumers.
Production costs for farmers have risen sharply over recent years. Farmers can primarily feel the increasing overheads when it comes to energy bills and agricultural inputs. The heavy concentration of food retailing, above all, makes it more difficult for producers to obtain good prices for their products.
Although the mark-up between the primary and the end product is sometimes considerable, not much of that reaches producers, as some of the margin is lost to each of the various processing steps. Politicians can intervene in competition policy, but we must be careful when doing so, and, in certain areas, we have to trust to market forces.
I consider it important to let consumers know that buying regional products from their producers or makers supports both the farmers and the local economy. That is where I see our role. We should intervene in this connection, be it with money or with political instruments. I believe strengthening regionalism provides a tool to do this. In the reform of the common agricultural policy, we need to make other tools available.
For me as a Social Democrat, it is important that access to wholesome food at reasonable prices should be guaranteed for all, while, at the same time, farmers must be able to receive a fair and reasonable income for their work. This demand requires us not to shirk our responsibility, and indeed to live up to it.
Every time we act, we need to ask ourselves if we are living up to these demands. If not, the result will be social unrest in the long run. Farmers and consumers are in the same boat. Let us ensure that that boat never sinks."@en1
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