Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-19-Speech-4-107-000"
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"en.20120119.5.4-107-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I see Mr Swoboda sitting in his seat. I want to wish him the very best in his new role. Of course, I also want to thank the rapporteur, Mr Caronna, and the members of the Committee on Agriculture, the Committee on the Environment and the Committee on the Internal Market for this report. I thank them, too, on behalf of Mr Cioloş, the Commissioner responsible for agricultural policy, who is in Dublin to present the common agricultural policy in Ireland.
Given its negative effects, especially for the environment and food safety, the issue of food waste is clearly receiving more and more attention. In this context, I must also mention the conference held in the European Parliament on 28 October 2010. What can we do at EU level? The Commission, which has already adopted a number of proposals, is currently drawing up additional proposals that will help to tackle the problem of food waste at various levels.
I have already mentioned the CAP reform, which focuses mainly on the production and processing stages of the food supply chain. The existing measures aimed at improving the sustainability of the agricultural sector, such as the agri-environmental measures, will be maintained. Additional measures will be introduced to respond to other recommendations in the report, such as the possibility of including in the rural development programmes thematic sub-programmes to support small holdings and promote the creation of short supply chains. The issue here is food miles.
The Commission is also in the process of developing a European Innovation Partnership on agricultural productivity and sustainability, which aims to promote sustainable agriculture that obtains better results with fewer resources. The high-level fora looking at ways of improving the functioning of the food supply chain, which we discussed this morning, are also examining ways of optimising food packaging and minimising food waste as far as possible.
The Commission uses platforms such as the EU Retail Forum for Sustainability, the European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table and an informal network of Member States to examine the issue of environmental sustainability.
Moreover, on 20 September, the Commission published a Roadmap to a Resource-Efficient Europe, which aims to transform the European economy into a sustainable system by 2050. It states that food is one of the key sectors that could help us to achieve our goals in terms of efficient resource use. The road map thus lays down the ambitious target of halving edible food waste in the European Union by 2020 and reducing by 20% the food chain’s resource inputs by the same date. This issue appears in the report’s recommendations. The road map also calls for the preparation in 2013 of a communication on sustainable food in order to move this complex issue forward in a coherent and concrete manner. It recommends, too, that a methodology based on sustainability criteria be developed for key food commodities by 2014.
In paragraph 35 of your report, you ask the Commission and the Council to designate 2013 the ‘European Year against Food Waste’. My colleague, Commissioner Dalli, has examined this idea with your rapporteur because everyone is generally in agreement that we have to do something to combat food waste throughout the food chain. However, 2013 is too soon, firstly because in August, the Commission proposed designating 2013 the ‘European Year of Citizens’, and secondly because we need roughly two years to prepare fully all aspects of a European Year.
If we focus on 2014, which is what I took from this debate, it might be possible. I will forward your request to Mr Cioloş and Mr Dalli because I think that we could work together towards that goal.
I would like to thank all of you and the President for this debate, which is of great interest and great importance to us all."@en1
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