Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-10-Speech-4-041"
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"en.20050310.3.4-041"2
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"Mr President, today we are debating the difference between reform and destruction, between helping the developing world and enriching the powerful forces in the global sugar market. This House and the Commission have a huge responsibility to get the balance right.
Reform of the sugar market is required, but destruction of the sugar market to the detriment of workers and farmers here in the European Union is not acceptable. Yet that is the inevitable outcome of the proposed reforms. These reforms are too drastic in terms of price and quota cuts. The inevitable consequence is the closure of the sugar industry in some Member States.
The proposal to trade quotas across borders is a new departure and one which will assist in the winding down of the sugar industry, especially in peripheral regions. It must also have implications for milk quotas. Alongside this threat, we do not have clarity as to who actually owns the sugar quota; I think it is essential that the quota be vested in growers of beet.
But let us look beyond the borders of the European Union. The ACP countries, which already enjoy preferential access to the EU market, have expressed their concerns that the reforms will hinder and not help their economies. Further afield, Brazil is waiting in the wings to increase massively its sugar production. There are some who lick their lips in anticipation, mainly the dozen or so sugar beet barons in that country. However, for the poor, the landless, the workers in the sugar mills, there is no such eager anticipation, because they will not benefit. In reality their lives will be made even more miserable, as the barons grab land and destroy the environment in pursuit of profit.
For us sugar is sweet, yet in Brazil the landless speak of sugar with the taste of blood. We must be fully aware of the consequences of what is proposed. We have a chance to get it right for the developing world and the EU sugar industry, but the current proposals are not the solution to this dilemma."@en1
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