Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-25-Speech-1-108"
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"en.20041025.15.1-108"2
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"Mr President, the facts are as follows: since the beginning of the year, the price of a barrel of oil has increased by 65%, going over the magic figure of USD 50. According to the predictions of certain analysts and economists, in the next few months the price may rise to USD 70 or 80 per barrel. The results of such an increase include a massive rise in costs in all areas, in particular in transport, agriculture and the areas to which reference has already been made today. A further slow-down in economic growth has ensued too. This can be estimated using the following simple formula: if the price of a barrel increases by USD 5, economic growth will fall by 0.3%. The increase has also resulted in a strengthening of the dollar against the euro and the other currencies of the European Union, as well as in disequilibria in the balance of payments of the major importing countries and, finally, in the European Union becoming less competitive and moving further away from the goals of the Lisbon strategy. Polish farmers were delighted to receive their first payments from the Union. Unfortunately, they are already aware that these payments will mainly be used not to develop farms, but to cover the cost of increases in fuel and fertiliser prices. The world did not anticipate these price rises, and the European Union did not anticipate them either when it planned its long-term policy consisting of programmes for the replacement of natural fuels by alternative and renewable fuels. Rapid measures should be taken to amend and accelerate the 2000 programme in the same way that America has done in the case of biofuels, with the country now using 10% biofuels in petrol and producing 70 million tonnes of them every year. A further example is that of the German economy and the production of electricity. Particular encouragement should be given to the production of biofuels, an increase in which would be the simplest and quickest way to limit imports. That would improve the European Union’s balance of payments both by increasing the number of jobs in rural areas, by accelerating the development of the much-feted multifunctional agriculture and also by raising profitability in agriculture, making it independent of the suffocating support system of subsidies. Now is the time for us to make a rapid change of policy to one that makes us independent of price rises, oil imports and excessive greenhouse gas emissions, and now is the time for us to choose the path of environmental protection."@en1
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