Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-10-Speech-4-039"
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"en.20030410.3.4-039"2
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"Mr President, last week in the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly we unanimously adopted a resolution on coffee. We called for urgent measures to alleviate the impact of commodity price instability in ACP countries. We have joined a chorus of voices from the Spanish parliament, the US Senate and the House of Representatives that are demanding change.
Twenty-seven ACP countries are dependent on coffee. It is that background knowledge, which the Commissioner outlined, that explains why it is so serious that world coffee prices have crashed by more than 60% in the last decade. Today, Parliament, in its resolution, calls for action. The international community, including the EU, has a responsibility now to address the collapse of world coffee prices and to alleviate that terrible suffering which Mr Wijkman talked about – 25 million coffee-dependent poor farmers and the communities in which they live.
The EU boasts about having a trade and aid approach to international solidarity. Indeed that is something we aim to do and we also have the necessary policy instruments. The EU Member States make up 15 of the 21 importing country members of the International Coffee Organisation. That makes us a key player in the market and with key responsibilities to the coffee-producing countries. We welcome the fact that in November the Council gave serious consideration to this issue of coffee dependency. However, since then very little has happened, in spite of the fact that the Commission has joined and echoed that support for an ICO quality programme.
The Commissioner mentioned the communication, which clearly is not now going to be on the table in time for the ICO and world high-level round-table meeting in London. We called for that in our resolution and we regret that it clearly is not going to happen.
The fact is that, despite the state of the market, the coffee companies are doing very well, thank you. In the free market their global reach gives them unprecedented options. Ten years ago coffee-producing countries received around one-third of every dollar spent on coffee. Now it is less than eight cents. Last year in Uganda I met a farmer who was selling a kilogram of her coffee beans for 150 Ugandan shillings. Later on I paid
Ugandan shillings in the Sheraton Hotel for just one cup of coffee! The four big companies together buy almost half the coffee beans produced around the world. The roaster companies must take greater responsibility for paying farmers a fair price for what they grow, to enable them to send their children to school, pay for health care and just put food on the table. There is terrible human suffering at the heart of the coffee business and we must put pressure on the companies to do more and care more. The EU has real authority in the ICO and we have a responsibility in the round-table meeting to hammer out policies which will give the farmers an opportunity to live their lives with dignity and financial security.
I want to know whether the Commission is preparing a specific action plan for this meeting, because just turning up simply will not be enough. We want a statement and an action plan. I also want to know – and that again is in our resolution – whether we will be sending a high-level representative. Is the Commissioner going? Is the Director-General going? At what level will the European Union be represented in order that we can have a clear and ambitious action plan? Then we can all continue to enjoy an excellent cup of the world's most popular drink – coffee."@en1
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