Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-06-Speech-3-135"
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"en.20021106.9.3-135"2
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"Mr President, Minister, the mid-term review of the common agricultural policy is certainly innovative, but the debate on the CAP needs to be much more radical. The question is not and cannot be how to improve the subsidy system – it is the subsidies which are the problem. The question we must ask is why – if there is still a reason – we should continue to operate an immense protectionist system which works against the interests of European consumers and penalises the farmers of poorer countries shamefully.
What sense is there in over 40% of the European budget being used to subsidise agriculture which is worth on average 2% of GDP and employs 5% of the European workforce in a system which fosters waste, fraud, inefficiency and pollution? On the one hand, the European citizens pay over EUR 40 billion per year into the CAP budget, and, on the other, each citizen spends over EUR 300 buying farm produce, which is EUR 300 more than they would have to spend if we did not have the common agricultural policy.
Lastly, the protectionist European agricultural system is systematically destroying the chances of hundreds of millions of people of freeing themselves from poverty, in that they are excluded from both the European markets and the markets of other countries, which are dependent upon subsidised exports.
We must shout out loud and clear that the European and US agricultural protectionist policies are a scandal and that, while the wealthy countries are giving the developing countries EUR 50 billion in aid, these policies alone are costing these same countries EUR 100 billion. This is what we must discuss in our debates, not just decoupling."@en1
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