Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-07-Speech-4-177"
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"en.20050707.26.4-177"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your contributions to the debate. Allow me to reply to a number of important points raised. Firstly, I wish to reaffirm that the main purpose of this fundamental change is to give the Member States greater flexibility, which should enable them better to take into account the needs of the outermost regions.
Regarding the reference period – and I would refer in this connection to Mr Freitas’ and Mr Fernandes’ speeches – a number of you are demanding a flexible period for calculating the financial ceilings applicable to the specific supply arrangements. I think I am able to state that the Commission has made substantial efforts to ensure that the new support arrangements are favourable to the outermost regions. It has to be said that adopting the proposed reference periods would lead to a considerable increase in expenditure.
The proposal constitutes a package. One cannot single out the more agreeable provisions and ask for those deemed less favourable to be reexamined. I would take the liberty of drawing your attention to this feature of my reply. The funding has been calculated on a basis favourable to these regions, particular account having been taken not of the historical figures but of the ceilings laid down for support for local production. The Commission is not inclined to modify its proposal concerning these financial ceilings.
With regard to limiting the specific supply arrangements to agricultural products – a matter addressed by both Mr Freitas and Mr Casaca – the Commission also wishes to provide a clearer framework for the Posei measures. That is why the new arrangements concern only agricultural products, listed in Annex I of the treaty. The unsatisfactory situations that applied in the past when it came to administering the Posei measures need to be brought to an end. The Commission proposes transitional periods that should enable the various sectors to adapt to the new situation.
The case of the Azores and Sinaga has also been mentioned. Raised by Mr Freitas and Mr Fernandes, the matter concerns the problems specific to the Azores and, in particular, to the Sinaga sugar refinery. The Council’s draft regulation does not include new provisions concerning exports and shipments of products that have benefited from the specific supply arrangements.
Since 1992, the Commission has been applying the same criteria to all the outermost regions, that is to say the average for the trade flows during the period 1989–1991. This approach was confirmed by the European Court of Justice in the Sinaga case. This needs to be pointed out.
The opportunities for financial support for sugar production in the Azores have been considerably increased in the Council’s draft regulation. The proposal provides for funding calculated, where support for local production is concerned, on the proportion of the development potential for sugar production within the framework of the production quotas: almost EUR 4 million per year, instead of the current effective production of EUR 400 million per year. On the basis of this generous funding and within the framework of the broad margin of flexibility left to the Member States in choosing sectors to subsidise, it is for the national authorities to decide, if they so wish, to increase support for sugar production and the specific sugar refinery, following consultation with all the interested parties.
The Commission is convinced that these new rules will improve the supervision of these arrangements, first and foremost in the interests specifically of the outermost regions."@en1
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