Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-05-Speech-3-349"
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"en.20060405.23.3-349"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to begin by sincerely thanking you for the very broad support that we have had for this change in the CMO. I shall now make some comments on the 23 amendments. In Amendments 1, 2 and 22 you asked for a list of the different support measures to be put into the Council regulation. As I have said previously, it is important to give a certain flexibility to the Member States. They should decide themselves which tools they want to use. I do not want to bind their hands, but I have clearly said that it is important that we try to address the problems upstream. But ultimately I leave it to the Member States. Some of the measures stated in your various amendments are going in the same direction. However, I should just like to mention one of them concerning the financing of an information campaign; this in fact belongs to a completely different legal framework. Therefore, I believe that some of the other measures proposed deserve to be looked into further.
Once again, it has been a great pleasure for me to do business with you.
Once again, I must underline that the purpose of this change of regulation is to try to fill in the legal gap that we have experienced and then allow the Member States to suggest the different possibilities that they consider to be the most efficient for them. Therefore, while I have some sympathy for some of the measures you have proposed, I cannot accept or introduce them into the regulation as has been suggested.
Some of you mentioned co-financing, which is proposed in 11 of your amendments. We have had the possibility of discussing this issue on several occasions when we amended our regulation on exceptional market measures. The Commission considers that co-financing on market support measures is an important way to ensure that Member States assume their share of the responsibility for the handling of different crises linked to health issues. We use this type of co-financing in relation to our veterinary measures, and we have had more than ten years’ experience in the co-financing of related exceptional market measures. It is not the time for changing this approach and I am therefore not in a position to accept those amendments.
On the information campaign you asked for in Amendments 1, 2, 16, 17 and 22, it is not the kind of measure that fits into this proposal. However, there is a Council regulation on internal promotion for European agricultural products, and I have asked my services to prepare an amendment to the existing Commission regulation so that
generic promotion of poultry meat would be eligible for European funding. It would be a waste of money to start a promotion campaign at this stage, but I can assure you that when the time is right, then all the legal aspects will be settled so that we can act immediately.
On Amendments 8, 9 and 23, I do not think it necessary to exclude certain measures on animal welfare grounds. The slaughter of animals is not a priority in the intended measures and the Commission will propose action in line with the different animal welfare standards. Nor can I support Amendment 7 on export refunds. The Commission uses the export refund instrument in a prudent way, taking into account our different responsibilities within our international commitments regarding this instrument.
On soft loans, I do not exclude at this stage any potential national proposal, provided that it does not destroy or distort competition. That is quite clear, and I can promise – as is already the case – that I will act as quickly as possible on any proposal put on my desk from the different Member States.
On vaccination, Member States that decide on a vaccination policy should examine carefully the possible consequences that such a step might have on their international trade. Trade problems created by vaccination cannot, in my view, justify the use of exceptional market support measures based on the new Article 14.
Let me turn to Article 14 in the existing Council legislative text, which was the subject of a question: Member States shall ensure that where producers contribute to the expenditure borne by Member States, this does not result in distortion of competition between producers in different Member States. I would like simply to underline that this was the wording we put into the discussion we had last year on co-financing.
Finally, on procedure: the European Union’s swift handling of this proposal is another sign of its credibility as a valuable partner in tackling the problems that might arise within the agricultural sector."@en1
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"when the time is right"1
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