Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-17-Speech-2-291"
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"en.20060117.22.2-291"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, there is an urgent need for a reform of the sugar market, since the present regulation governing quotas, prices and export subsides expires on 30 June 2006. Yet changes of the kind that have been proposed to us are unacceptable.
The view held not only by myself, but also by the majority of sugar beet farmers in Poland, is that the only word that can be used to describe these changes is scandalous. The political compromise that has now been reached by the Council is intolerable. It has even been claimed by Polish sugar beet farmers that the reform of the EU sugar market was delayed on purpose until after the new Member States had joined, so that sugar production in the EU could be scaled down at their expense. The European Commission has said time and time again that C sugar quotas destabilise the market. The WTO panel ruled against us, and we were unsuccessful in our appeal. Yet the compromise reached by the Council of Ministers provides for an additional 1.1 million tonnes of C sugar for the Member States that produce most of it.
There is an astonishing lack of consistency in the measures taken by the European Commission and the Council. Even though the goal of these institutions is to limit production, they have proposed an increase for countries producing large quantities of what is known as C sugar. We received several Christmas presents along these lines, but it is a shame that Father Christmas was not as generous to all the other countries. How do the Commissioner and the Council explain the fact that only selected countries will receive additional aid? How have these countries been selected? The cost of all these Christmas gifts, which will take the shape of more generous restructuring payments, will be met by other, much poorer countries, including Poland. I would ask the Commissioner whether the reform of the sugar market amounts to nothing but haggling, or whether it is based on consistent measures that will ensure that the European sugar market is competitive.
I would ask Parliament to adopt the amendments that I have tabled with a view to improving this reform of the sugar market, at least in part. Let us hope that the Commission and the Council take note of them. There is still a chance that they will do so, and I would be very grateful if they did."@en1
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