Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-245"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080422.49.2-245"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the dramatic rise in food prices since the start of the year has triggered a worldwide awareness of the global food crisis.
In the medium and long term, the only valid response is that we do everything we can to ensure agricultural supply. Production must increase globally to keep pace with international demand, although this must not be left to the main exporting countries. The European Union has already taken concrete measures in this regard. Set-aside has been frozen, milk quotas have been increased and customs duty on cereals has been abolished.
Africa must play its part, with our support, and instigate a green revolution so that it can reduce its overall dependency on the international market. African agriculture is currently the least productive in the world, but it offers enormous potential for development, provided that policies in favour of domestic smallholdings are maintained and priority is given to investments, to boosting productivity and to facilitating access for farmers to national and regional markets.
The Commission is already making this approach a key priority. We were the first to highlight the importance of agriculture in development policies, long before other international players did so. We have reviewed our own programmes based on those of the African Union, proposing to align European aid for agriculture and rural development with the African Union’s agricultural development programme unveiled in June 2007.
During the programming of the 10
European Development Fund, we made sure that the rural development sector as a whole would see a twofold increase in aid – EUR 650 million for the 9
EDF, EUR 1 250 billion for the 10
EDF. This has not been easy, since, as you know, it is up to the development partners to choose the sectors in which aid is to be concentrated. This is a significant increase, a 100% rise in absolute terms, although it does not translate as a percentage increase in the amount set aside for agriculture and rural development. The amount of money available has doubled, but the percentage of the European Development Fund remains more or less the same.
In this context, we note with satisfaction the renewed interest of the donor community in the agricultural sector, which has been ignored over the last 25 years. The Commission as a whole, and I in particular, as Commissioner responsible for Development and Humanitarian Aid, are only too aware of the political importance of the current crisis. I had the chance to speak to the Secretary-General of the United Nations about this at the last meeting of the Africa MDG Steering Group in New York last month. I also discussed it with the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mr Ping. It was during this meeting that I used the expression ‘humanitarian tsunami’, because I felt that it was necessary to shock political leaders into action, rather than simply talking and making promises.
The causes of the crisis are varied and complex, although we must take care not to get lost in the finer details. There is increased demand, particularly in Asia, due to the improved living standards of many people who can now afford to eat more and to eat better. There is also the increase in oil prices, which has a direct impact on the cost of transport and fertilisers. Add to this the problems on the supply side caused by the impact of climate change, and we have some of the ingredients for the current crisis right there.
What is the Commission doing? It is working on a long term strategy, which as I said earlier is crucial. However, it will be two years before we see the results on the ground. Increasing agricultural production is not simply a question of turning on a tap, so we are also looking at the short term and at emergency aid. Last March, we decided on a further EUR 160 million in food aid; we have just decided to release an additional EUR 57 million, budgeted for 2008 but which will be made available much earlier in the year. We will be mobilising EUR 60 million of fresh money, which will either come from a rejigging of Heading 4, or from a request made to Parliament to mobilise the emergency reserve.
Finally, I would like to point out that the Commission will continue to monitor this situation very closely and is ready, as needs develop, to consider additional funding if necessary.
In a few hours’ time, a meeting is scheduled to start in London which will bring together the main parties involved in food aid. At the beginning of May, an international conference will be held on the subject of ‘Towards a green revolution in Africa’. All political players, operators and experts in this sector have now been mobilised. For several years now the world has seen a steady increase in food prices.
Since 2000, the dollar price of wheat has tripled, and rice and maize prices have doubled. The start of 2008 brought a further 20% increase, which has, in our industrialised countries, resulted in worries over purchasing power and in developing countries in the risk of famine for entire populations. When you live on less than a dollar a day and you spend most of your income on food, these increases are quite simply untenable.
This is at the root of the food protests that have taken place in recent weeks all over the world: in Haiti, Mexico, Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Studies show that the era of cheap food on the international market is over. We will not see food prices returning to their former levels, and volatility could increase if measures are not taken swiftly.
The current climate of rocketing food prices is a serious threat in terms of political, financial and social destabilisation in many countries around the world, so we must react quickly. It goes far beyond the capacity of the European Commission, or even of the European Union. The entire international community must act.
Looking at the possible solutions, we have identified two key options. Firstly, we need to save lives and respond to the social crises created by the soaring prices, sometimes exacerbated by the national political situation. Secondly, we evidently need a medium and long term strategy. I believe that we need to act on both fronts. Clearly the biggest mistake would be to offer a humanitarian response to a structural problem such as food security in the form of food aid. Doubtless this would ease some people’s consciences in the short term, but emergency food aid is not enough to tackle a structural problem.
In the short term therefore, it is clearly necessary, along with national responses aimed at ensuring better control of food prices, to meet the needs of the most vulnerable populations who are in real humanitarian distress. This is why we must mobilise additional emergency humanitarian aid to increase the capacity of ECHO to deliver emergency food aid.
However, this is no ordinary food crisis. This is a purchasing power crisis, which hits the most destitute who can no longer afford to buy food. Therefore, our response must also be based on other forms of food aid, designed, for example, to offset the negative effects on infant malnutrition and to support the purchasing power of the most vulnerable households. We must also promote the rapid growth of local agricultural supply, thus giving local farmers access to agricultural inputs, seeds and fertilisers.
In view of the scale of the crisis and its probable duration, it is absolutely crucial that the European Union also engages in a medium-term approach, supporting social protection policies in the countries most at risk, particularly in Africa."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"th"1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples