Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-10-Speech-4-025"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050310.3.4-025"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, for the sake of some vague compromise with the WTO, we are getting ready to throw tens of thousands of workers onto the street, to close down dozens of undertakings, to deal a terrible blow to European agriculture, and to call into question the development of many countries.
Yet who will profit from this reform? Will it be the farmers? Who could possibly believe such a stupid idea, when the gross loss of income is announced as being 50%? Perhaps it will be the consumers? That is really hard to believe, because a fall in the producer prices paid to farmers has never had any effect on the purchasing power of households. How about small producers in the Southern hemisphere? Our experience of the coffee market and of sugar production in Brazil is hardly going to convince us.
On the other hand, the multinationals in the agri-food industry have cause for celebration. Thanks to the Commission and the WTO, they will be able to force more young children to work on the sugar-cane plantations. They will be able to exploit a little more the suffering men and women who are often paid less than 100 dollars a month. They will be able to watch their profits swell enormously on the basis of a social disaster.
This reform is also giving rise to terrible anxiety throughout the most remote regions. Our group recently visited Réunion, at the invitation of Mr Verges, and we were able to see for ourselves the extent to which this reform was a catastrophe for that island.
In addition to the need for total compensation, a problem of consistency has also arisen. Despite the fact that, for over 40 years, the greater part of the European Union’s investments have been devoted to the development of the cane-sugar sector, and the fact that that sector represents one third of final agricultural production, 25% of electric production and three quarters of exports, it is now proposed to call into question the very existence of this strategic development action, without there being any possibility of an alternative which could cope with the consequences.
We must understand the full scope of the consequences of this reform. At the request of Mr Verges, our group would like the Commission to undertake to submit to Parliament a study of the impact, particularly the social impact, on the real situation of the outlying regions. We would also like the same type of study to be carried out on a European scale.
Mr President, let me finish by saying that we are convinced that there are solutions to be found within a real policy on the regulation of the sugar market, of which Europe should be the promoter."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples