Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-10-Speech-2-360"
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"en.20050510.28.2-360"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, the EU’s most recent enlargement brought a number of changes to the fruit and vegetable market. The EU studies of the candidate countries in its annual reports.
Yet although the Commission noted in its studies that the EU would gain as many as 19 new varieties of fruit and vegetables with the accession of the new Member States, and that this would increase the EU’s self-sufficiency in food and please consumers, no changes were made to the organisation of the market on the basis of these facts. This means that we are faced with a bizarre situation whereby a special support mechanism exists for a variety of plum, whilst nothing of the sort exists for apples, despite the fact that the latter account for 32% of all fruit picked, which makes them the most popular type of fruit. Support mechanisms are in place for nuts and bananas, but there is not a single one for any of the huge variety of soft fruits, which by their very nature have an extremely short shelf life, and are therefore subject to price fluctuations.
I should like to remind the Commissioner that yet another season is passing us by without any sensible solutions having been found. The policy applied to the 15 old Member States remains more advantageous than that applied to the 10 new Member States, and it would appear that the Commission is merely pretending to take action, rather than coming up with practical solutions. In a bid to win time, a special team of inspectors has been sent to Poland. This is an unfortunate game to play in view of the urgent need to stabilise the fruit and vegetable market and to secure the existence of thousands of producers and their families, in particular in the new Member States. What is more, it is a risky game to play in view of the fact that consumers are the ones who have to suffer the effects of price fluctuations, and put up with poor-quality fruit that has had to be imported from third countries and poses a health risk. There is, however, a very simple solution. The new Member States can provide a guaranteed supply of high-quality soft fruit and apples. Supporting the former should therefore be made a matter of priority
by placing restrictions on imports, unless, of course, people wish to take an entirely different approach to European solidarity, and use the common agricultural policy to cover additional quotas."@en1
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