Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-246"
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"en.20080422.49.2-246"2
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"First of all I would like to apologise to Members for my late arrival. I have just been at a meeting with the Conference of Committee Chairman and I am grateful to you for having arranged the debate so as to enable me to speak now.
In view of the scale of the possible consequences, the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council discussed the issue of high prices at its meeting in April. It is most likely that it will discuss this further at future meetings and ministers will also address the problem in other Council formations.
International organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, and other agencies, are also making active efforts to curb the rise in food prices. The Slovenian Presidency will take part in the international Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy to be held at the beginning of June in Rome under the auspices of the FAO.
In conclusion, the rise in food prices is a global problem and therefore needs to be addressed with due consideration and with intensified efforts in all related areas. Our aim is to restore market price stability.
The European Union is very concerned about the increase in the prices of agricultural produce, which is becoming a problem not just in the European Union but elsewhere in the world as well. We are aware of the seriousness and scale of the potential consequences, in particular for the poorest countries of the world.
Where do the reasons for this lie? On the supply side, the price rise is mainly due to a shortfall in yields, partly as a result of the impact of climate change, particularly in the case of cereals, and higher production costs. On the other hand, world population growth and the rapid development of a number of major countries, such as China, India and Brazil, is increasing demand. Increased purchasing power and higher living standards in these countries are leading to changes in dietary habits. The increase in demand for meat and dairy products is having an indirect effect on prices for feed grain.
Some, or rather many, people are also citing as a reason the expanding biofuels market and the concomitant demand for agricultural products for non-food purposes. It is precisely for this reason that we in the European Union are making efforts, through the working groups established specifically for that purpose, to draw up clear sustainability criteria, which will facilitate the sustainable production of biofuels with a minimum impact on factors such as food prices.
Since, on both the supply and demand sides, the reasons cited for higher food prices are structural in nature, prices and price increases can be expected, in the long term as well, to remain at a level higher than that to which we have become accustomed in the past decade. Globally, the rise in food prices is having a particularly harmful impact on countries where agricultural produce and food account for a significant proportion of imports. This issue is particularly acute in countries with low and medium gross domestic products and less competitive structures in terms of the production of and trade in food.
In order to ensure basic food supplies, it is necessary, among other things, to encourage agricultural production in poorer countries. At the same time, wealthier countries should be encouraged to allocate funds for development aid to the poorest countries and to become more actively involved in humanitarian organisations.
The European Union is seeking to curb rising food prices in various ways. The purpose of the recent reforms of the common agricultural policy was to make European agriculture more sustainable and market-oriented. The European Union has already adopted the set-aside requirement for 2008 and thereby increased the volume of arable land given over to food production in the European Union. The final abolition of this obligation and the withdrawal of energy crop premiums were also proposed as part of the review of the common agricultural policy.
Efforts to promote research paving the way for the production of second-generation biofuels are also important. By-products, such as straw, parings and waste in general, would be used in their production.
In addition, as part of the World Trade Organisation negotiations, the EU is willing to remove export subsidies by 2013. In any event, the issue of the instability of agricultural markets is becoming one of the main challenges facing European Union agriculture and agricultural policy."@en1
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