Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-15-Speech-4-030"
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"en.20010215.2.4-030"2
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".
Mr President, the cotton sector is of great social and economic importance, as you know, to Spain and, even more so, to Greece. In Greece, cotton is becoming a national product, employing over 300 000 families and producing about 1 350 000 tonnes of cotton in Objective 1 areas, which have a far higher unemployment rate than the Community average and where the average size of holdings is much smaller than the Community average. The Community needs 4.5 million tonnes of unginned cotton. In other words, this product is in particularly short supply in the European Union, with Community production covering a mere 35% of demand.
Guaranteed national quantities are always irritatingly lower than actual production, which has resulted in producers' incomes being eroded by high coresponsibility levies while, paradoxically, the bigger the quota overshoot, the lower the cost to the Community budget. This unacceptable situation has justifiably exasperated our producers, who are turning out in force, just as they did years ago and again yesterday throughout the countryside in Greece. However, instead of strengthening the current regulation, as rightly demanded by our cotton growers, by bringing quotas into line with current production levels and adjusting at least some of the institutional prices, which have been frozen since 1992, along comes the European Commission and not only does it propose to keep support at its current low levels, it increases the coresponsibility levy by 20%.
The Commission's objective of drastically reducing cotton production is unjustified because this is a product in which the European Union is only 30-35% self-sufficient. It is wrong because it penalises cotton producers for the fall in international cotton prices over the last three years – despite the fact that they are not to blame and the Commission did nothing to rectify the situation. I should point out here that the European Commission tried to back up its unacceptable proposal by presenting it when international prices were at their lowest for a decade, in December 1999. Since then, international prices have doubled. Similarly, the European Union is proposing to limit aid for cotton production when it is most needed, with the United States of America channelling more and more money to its cotton producers, enabling them to increase their output and depressing international prices.
The environmental alibi does not stand up because cotton production – and this has been scientifically proven – is much less harmful to the environment than similar types of subsidised production which producers abandoned in order to grow cotton. The Commission has not taken any account whatsoever of Protocol 4 to the Act of Accession of Greece, which sets out the scheme for cotton with a view to aiding cotton production in the regions of the Community in which it is important to the agricultural economy.
Cotton producers are calling for the Community preference to be extended to cotton, especially given the shortfall in the Community in cotton. Cotton is the chief plant-based textile fibre which is a natural and healthier product than the synthetic fibres with which it competes, it provides jobs for hundreds of thousands of farmers and it may even attract young farmers to remain in the countryside, which is being depopulated.
What do we propose? We propose to lift all restrictions on cotton growing, quotas, coresponsibility levies, environmental consequences, so that the minimum price is paid in full to producers. Despite this, since for a variety of financial reasons some ceiling has to be set, this ceiling should cover present actual production by our cotton growers, the system of aid should be maintained, institutional prices of cotton should be adjusted in the light of official data concerning average Community inflation between 1995 and 2000, aid should be paid directly to cotton producers through their cooperative associations, without the intervention of private ginning undertakings, after studying the most suitable procedure, and Annex B of the regulation, which determines increases and reductions in the minimum producer price on the basis of quality characteristics, should be included in the new regulation.
We therefore feel that it is essential for the European Parliament to support the producers' call for aid. It is in precisely this spirit that we proposed a quota of 1.5 million tonnes for Greece and 450 000 tonnes for Spain. The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development decided on 1 200 000 for Greece and 350 000 for Spain. We want to call on Parliament to stand by the side of farmers so that people stay in the countryside and so that, at the end of the day, our farmers can survive."@en1
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