Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-362"
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"en.20070904.29.2-362"2
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"Mr President, let me start by thanking Parliament, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and in particular the rapporteur, Ms Jeggle, for this constructive report on the milk mini-package.
The package provides amendments for three legal acts. The first concerns the Directive on preserved milk, in which we now allow standardisation of the protein content, totally in line with the Codex standards. This meets a longstanding request from our dairy industry and exporters of milk powder, and their position vis-à-vis their competitors in third countries will clearly improve.
Not only industry and trade, but also milk producers – our farmers – stand to benefit because this standardisation of protein can yield a higher valorisation of the milk. Furthermore, the forecasted strong demand for proteins will easily absorb the increase in the available quantities of proteins. I welcome your full support for this proposal.
The second proposal concerns the common market organisation for milk and for milk products. Here we propose a whole series of adaptations on which the European Parliament has expressed its full support. These include the proposal to reduce the intervention price for skimmed milk powder as a mathematical result of lower protein content owing to standardisation. It contains an elimination of the price-trigger system per Member State in the butter intervention system. It also contains the abolition of the national quantities for butter as an eligible criterion for aid, removal of the obsolete aid for military forces and abandoning the compulsory use of import licences.
Your amendment for maintaining the private storage of cream and skimmed milk powder is a little surprising because these schemes have never been used in practice and can be considered obsolete. Furthermore, private storage for butter is maintained, so there is really no need to maintain the scheme for cream.
Concerning your amendments on the school-milk scheme, we are on the same wavelength. As we have proposed, the system will be simplified by introducing one single rate of aid. DG AGRI was already exploring the different possibilities of reviewing the school-milk scheme and had invited Member States to provide suggestions for trying to improve the system, as well as for additional products to be covered by the scheme. The resulting changes in the system will soon be presented in the Milk Management Committee. I hope that an agreement between Parliament, the Council and the Commission can be found on the increased aid level for school milk, up EUR 18.15 per 100 kilograms.
Concerning your amendment that would introduce a milk fund to finance a restructuring programme, I would underline that the proposals contained in the milk mini-package are really not of a restructuring nature. I therefore have great difficulty in correlating these basic technical and simplification measures with a perceived need to establish a new ‘milk fund’ budget line. Discussions on the need for appropriate measures for the milk sector should take place in view of the upcoming health check discussions and the various discussions we will have on the future of the common agricultural policy.
The third act concerns liberalisation of the drinking-milk market, where I note that we are also on the same wavelength. The suggestion to delete the 0.2% tolerance for the fat contents seems to be acceptable. You also propose that a reference be made to Directive 2000/13/EC. Please be informed that this Directive automatically applies.
So, all in all, I note with pleasure that our views are in line with one another. Thank you for all your work. I look forward to our continuing discussion tonight."@en1
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