Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-06-08-Speech-1-074-000"
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"en.20150608.11.1-074-000"2
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"Mr President, the one point we are all clear about is that there is a lack of clarity as to the rules for the disbursement of this fund. But I can make a suggestion here, and I see Commissioner Hogan is turning round to have a look at me – well, I am rather flattered: thank you very much.
British farmers are sustaining a 15% pay cut due to the weakness of the euro. Why is the euro so weak? Because it is being used by countries which never should have been allowed to join a single currency in the first place. This may not constitute an act of God, which is what the fund should be used for, but it is an act of the Commission – an institution that has assumed the mantle of deity and can accordingly be included in this definition. This fund could therefore be used as a replacement for what used to be called the ‘green pound’. This would help to offset the sharp drop in direct payments to British farmers and go a small way to compensating for loss of export opportunities and the undercutting of their domestic price by cheap eurozone imports.
This is not an argument for the UK itself to join the euro, and I am sure that is what you will try and convince us to do, Commissioner – but, had we done so, British taxpayers would be impoverished to the extent that they would struggle to finance the CAP at all. It is convenient for Member States to forget that the UK is a massive net contributor to the CAP, and our taxpayers should have the comfort of knowing that their money is at least being used to support domestic agriculture and local food, as opposed to propping up a failed economic project.
Commissioner, I will stay on in the debate as long as I can – but I have to go to an agricultural meeting, as you know – because I would like to hear what you have got to say about all of that."@en1
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