Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-14-Speech-4-141"
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"en.20050414.23.4-141"2
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"We have been warning the Commission and Parliament since the beginning of the year about the seriousness of one of the severest droughts in Portugal, the social, economic and environmental effects of which are set to worsen as the summer approaches.
In our question to the Commission in January, and our speech to Parliament in February, we said that urgent measures were needed to address the difficult situation in farming and that immediate steps should be taken to ensure that the water supply in various regions is not cut off. The situation for farming is giving cause for concern. The autumn/winter crops were lost and the spring/summer crops, such as tomatoes, maize, rice, fruit and vegetables are at risk; this is also the case with animal feed, and to the normal growth of autumn crops such as citrus and grapes. Some reforesting that was carried out after the 2003 and 2004 fires has been lost for good due to the lack of humidity in the soil.
This situation plunges thousands of small and medium-sized farms into serious financial difficulty. Practical measures are therefore urgently required to support Portuguese farmers, such as those measures provided for in the resolution, or, as we proposed, the creation of a public farmers’ insurance fund, financed by the Community, which will enable farmers to be paid a minimum income in the event of a disaster, such as drought or fire; financial support to offset the increased costs and the drop in agricultural production; temporary exemption from social security contributions, with no loss of rights, for full-time farmers with an income of less than 12 Economic Size Units (ESUs) and the extension of interest-free loans for two years.
Furthermore, short- and long-term measures must also be introduced, in order to guarantee that water – a public asset and a universal human right – is made available to the people in sufficient quantity and quality. We have therefore proposed an amendment emphasising the need to introduce practical measures to support local authorities in the parts of Portugal worst affected by the drought, whilst ensuring that the European Solidarity Fund is activated fairly.
Lastly, this situation once again points up the need to implement the important objectives laid down in the Kyoto Protocol, in order to prevent global warming and the effects that this has on climate change."@en1
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