Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-17-Speech-2-299"
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"en.20060117.22.2-299"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, as you are no doubt all aware, sugar cubes are a Czech invention, and so as a Czech MEP I should like to make a number of comments on the proposal to reform the Common Organisation of the Market for sugar, if I may.
The first comment I should like to make is that I welcome the attempts of the European Council and of the European Commission to reform the EU’s sugar policy. The policy as it stands is utterly ludicrous and costs taxpayers and consumers too much. This state of affairs must change as soon as possible and the market as a whole must be deregulated and liberalised.
Secondly, the fact that the sugar regime is being reformed only after the EU’s policy was ruled unfair by the World Trade Organisation is deplorable, and everyone in the EU should spend some time reflecting on it. Why are we incapable of liberalising our own markets, and why do we have to be forced into doing so by other countries? After all, free trade and free markets have brought nothing but prosperity to the European nations throughout their history, whereas economic protectionism brings nothing but poverty. Yet it would appear that advocates of protectionism are well represented in this House. I am fundamentally opposed to their views and I will not vote in favour of their amendments. The sugar regime must be reformed as soon as possible.
The third point I should like to make relates to the fact that a sugar refinery operated in my home town from 1890 until 1994. The reason it went bankrupt was the opening up of the sugar market after the fall of Communism in my country. The sugar refinery in my home town of Lysá nad Labem went bankrupt because it was unable to compete with the subsidised sugar refineries in the European Union. In the course of the 1990s, more than 50 sugar refineries in the Czech Republic went bankrupt or were closed down for this reason. The people who worked in them lost their jobs and received no compensation, and the refinery owners and sugar beet farmers received no compensation either. It is now the turn of the sugar sector in the old EU Member States to undergo the same process of market adjustment. The compensation that has been proposed is extremely generous, which should make such adjustment a simple task. I am therefore in favour of the reform of the sugar regime, and indeed I believe that it could go further. Our experiences in the Czech Republic show that such a reform is both feasible and manageable."@en1
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