Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-17-Speech-2-295"
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"en.20060117.22.2-295"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, we all agree that the sector needs to be reformed in order to make it sustainable, in line with the latest reform of the CAP and with the EU’s international obligations. Despite these new objectives, however, the reform proposed by the Commission would cause serious problems for Europe’s farmers, not least the swingeing reduction in the price of sugar.
I therefore endorse Mr Fruteau’s report, along with the work carried out by the various political groups in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, which I feel sends out a very clear message to the Commission and the Council. In addition to the capping of price reductions to 30% in the common organisation of the market in sugar, I wish to highlight Amendment 3, on support schemes for farmers, which refers to the possibility of Member States continuing to enjoy production-linked subsidies, at least to some extent. This will help prevent the rapid disappearance of the sugar sector in the regions most under threat from this reform. I would say, however, that the Commission’s proposal was drawn up more from the point of view of the processing industry than that of agricultural producers, and more from the perspective of the interests of the major surplus producing countries than that of the smaller countries which do not even produce enough sugar beet to satisfy consumption, as in the case of Portugal.
The mainstay of sugar beet production in Portugal is a factory that produces some 70 000 tonnes of the 300 000 tonnes consumed across the country. In other words, it is not countries like Portugal that are unbalancing the international market with surplus production. Nevertheless, by safeguarding the possibility of the restructuring fund supporting those giving up on part of the quota, we will be helping the sugar industry in some countries, such as Portugal, and shifting it away from the agricultural sector towards sustaining the processing side of the industry.
Lastly, I should like to express my objection to the way in which the Council has approached this subject, from an institutional point of view. It does not matter how many times we hear that what we have is a political agreement and not a formal decision, the truth is that at a time when Europe’s citizens have expressed their concerns about the amount of transparency in the European institutions, this is not the best way to move forward. It is not simply a matter of following the interinstitutional agreement to the letter. We also have a duty, as politicians directly elected by the citizens of Europe, to demand respect, both ethically and politically, for the institutions."@en1
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