Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-10-Speech-2-377"
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"en.20050510.29.2-377"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to draw the attention of the House to three issues I believe to be important with regard to the quota system for the production of potato starch. Firstly, debates on agriculture frequently leave one with the impression that by accident or by design, Commission representatives have large gaps in their knowledge of the new Member States’ production potential. The new Member States account for 30% of the EU’s total production potential for potato starch, which is the subject of our debate today. At the same time, however, the starch production quotas set for these countries amount to only around 10% of the production quota for the European Union as a whole. There is therefore no denying that the way in which these quotas have been shared out between the old and the new Member States is blatantly unfair.
Secondly, it is frequently stated during debates that it would be impossible to change anything agreed on during the accession negotiations. The justification for this is that if a country were to benefit from a change of this kind, the other countries would also want things to be changed to their advantage. This kind of attitude is unacceptable. Thirdly and finally, the Commission takes an extremely long time to respond to speeches and motions by Members of this House. We often have to wait weeks for a response, and the actual implementation of measures can take months. This state of affairs is also intolerable.
These reservations notwithstanding, I hope that the Commission, the Council and Parliament will succeed in reaching a compromise, if only on the issue of starch production quotas. Mr Wojciechowski has proposed such a compromise, which was adopted unanimously by the Committee on Agriculture, and he deserves every credit for having done so. Admittedly, this solution does not provide the new Member States with any guarantee that their starch production quotas will be increased, but it does at least make it an option. This is particularly true in view of the fact that starch production in the European Union has fallen short of current production limits by an average of 7% for each of the past six years. The same is therefore likely to be the case in future. The new regulation will make it possible for unused quotas to be transferred to the new Member States, and this will provide farmers growing starch potatoes in these countries, and in particular in Poland, with an opportunity to earn more money from their holdings. It will also enable the starch industry to improve its utilisation of production capacity."@en1
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