Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-06-Speech-1-151"
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"en.20050606.17.1-151"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the field of human activity that we are debating today is a special one, as agriculture amounts to nothing less than the means of our biological existence. At the same time, however, we all know that agriculture is not only significant in economic terms, but also in social, environmental and cultural terms.
I should therefore like to pay tribute to Mrs Schierhuber for the effort she has put into drafting such an excellent report. We are well aware that the current trend is for more and more of those living in the countryside to have only loose ties with agriculture, with the result being a large overlap between agricultural policy and regional policy. It therefore needs to be possible to carry out multiple agricultural activities in a rational manner in rural areas, thus ensuring that agricultural products of the highest possible quality can be produced and processed. At the same time, people living in such areas ought to be guaranteed adequate living conditions. Further issues that must not be neglected in rural areas include family and social ties and cultural concerns, as well as ecology and tourism.
There are a number of issues to which I should like to alert the House. The Member States must be aware that adequate funding should also be set aside in national budgets and used solely for rural development. Secondly, use of EAFRD funding at local level to promote integration or SMEs should be as wide as possible. My third point is that geographic conditions should be taken into account when distributing funds, for example the unique nature of mountainous or semi-mountainous areas. Fourthly, serious consideration needs to be given to the education system in the countryside, and to the provision of agricultural advice. The fifth point I should like to make is that rural areas need infrastructure, or in other words roads, water supplies, sewage systems, telephone lines and Internet access, and that this infrastructure must meet today’s requirements. Basic medical care must also be available in these areas, as well as access to cultural and recreational facilities and high-quality education, to reiterate a point I made earlier.
I propose that more funding be set aside to regenerate rural areas. If it were placed under the control of local communities, such money would certainly not go to waste."@en1
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