Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-15-Speech-4-102"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010215.4.4-102"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
The European Union cotton consumption stands at more than 4 million tonnes while its production capacity is only approximately 1.5 million tonnes. We therefore have to import the balance. Apparently there is nothing too shocking about this, given that, after all, we already import cars, fruit, vegetables, etc., and so why not cotton too?
It would be unbelievable if, given the shortfall in cotton production, the European Commission actually banned further cotton production, but that is in fact the case! There are quotas and penalties in place to limit European cotton production to approximately 1 million tonnes, instead of the 1.5 million tonnes that we are capable of producing. There is a ban on cotton production in Spain and Greece, with hundreds of small farms in Andalusia, Thrace and Valencia. To make matters worse, there are plans to increase the so-called “coresponsibility” levy to more than the current penalty of 50% of the overshoot of the quota.
And all this benefits the United States and Australia. In this instance, unlike the case for sugar and rice, it is no longer a matter of sacrificing our own farmers in order to assist the poor in – for instance –the Sudan, a country responsible for exterminating the Christian population of the south. Oh no, there is no such excuse in the case of cotton. It is not like the milk sector, where quotas can be justified due to overproduction. Our sacrifices are not justified in terms of assisting the 48 least developed countries.
Europe is blocking production and the only beneficiaries are the United States and Australia. We saw this in the case of oil- and protein-rich crops which we nonetheless need as substitutes for meat meal. We saw this in the case of Californian almonds, and in the case of bananas. Now we have cotton too.
What good, then, are the European defence system, the euro, the European Constitution and all the other folderols about the Europe we must have, if Europe is the specific entity which is stopping us producing, however modestly, the cotton we need, so as not to ruffle the feathers of the United States, a country we are also freely allowing to spy on us day and night through the Echelon system."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples