Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-14-Speech-4-124"

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"en.20020314.6.4-124"2
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". Tobacco growing plays a very important role, especially in the less favoured regions of Europe. About 130 000 landowners and 400 000 seasonal workers are involved in tobacco production and processing in the European Union. These figures alone are enough to justify and provoke a study on the social and economic costs of suppressing aid to tobacco, even before we get to the political debate on this crop’s future in the European Union. In any case, restrictions on tobacco growing in Europe would have no effect on consumption except to turn European consumers towards tobaccos from outside the European Union, which are of much poorer quality and certainly more harmful to health. Added to this is the fact that Commission document COM (2001) 264 of 15 May 2001 on sustainable development stresses that ‘political leaders should determine the pros and cons for other political contexts and take them into account. A thorough evaluation of all the effects of a proposed political action must include estimates of its environmental and social impact both inside and outside the EU.’ As European Republicans, we therefore believe that the Commission should make a concerted effort to promote studies and research into possible alternative crops that would maintain the rural fabric in a sustainable manner. We agree with the draftsman, Mrs Redondo Jiménez, that the political debate on tobacco should be held over until Parliament has received an evaluation report on the management of the fund, with any proposed amendments and improvements. For the reasons given above, we say ‘no’ to the under-cover gradual elimination of subsidies for tobacco growing; we call for the current contribution levels for the research fund activities to be maintained for 2002/2003/2004, since agronomic research is today one of the most important ways of making tobacco consumption less harmful to health; and we support the amended report by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development."@en1

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