Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-09-Speech-3-462"
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"en.20080709.37.3-462"2
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"I am quite happy to have this opportunity to answer all four questions, since we seem to be fairly late, according to the initial schedule.
Regarding the first three questions, I would say that the European Union’s agriculture is both at the contributing and the receiving end of today’s global environmental challenges. We cannot stand by and fail to act. EU action is needed and, through rural development, we can provide the most targeted and effective measures. But, as you all know, our funds within the rural development policy are limited. The fairest and most straightforward way to raise money is through an additional shift of funds from the first pillar – from direct payment – into rural development policy in Pillar 2 through what we call increased modulation, of course on a compulsory basis.
I am not prepared to consider the increase in modulation on a voluntary basis. It is quite clear that the Commission took into account the fact that in February 2007 Parliament adopted a report rejecting the Commission’s proposal on voluntary modulation. I have to say that I am quite happy that we have always been in agreement on this issue.
Concerning the threshold, the Commission’s proposal is to transfer EUR 5 billion from the first to the second pillar in the period from 2009 to 2012. This calculation is made on the basis of the present threshold of EUR 5 000 or the franchise, as we normally call it. Raising this threshold would mean a substantial reduction in the funds. The Commission believes that, with less budget available, the effectiveness of dealing with the challenges within climate change and water scarcity will be significantly weakened.
Within the health check package, small producers who receive direct payments of a value less than EUR 5 000 will continue to be exempted from modulation. Therefore, small farms will not only continue to be protected from any possible negative effect of the shift from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2, but could also profit from the money that is generated through the modulation by engaging in the appropriate rural development programmes.
With regard to modulation, farmers sometimes say to me, ‘Well you take my money’ or ‘you reduce the payment to the agricultural sector, to the farmers’. This is not in fact true because of the fact that, when you modulate money, you generate more money to the sector in general, because the modulated money needs to be co-financed by Member States. It is clear that, with the new modulated money, we will be much more specific. We will simply make a menu of possibilities explicitly targeting the new challenges. This means that, to those who say that modulation or money in rural development policy can be used for whatever reason, I can promise you this is not going to happen with the money that we propose for modulation in the health check. So, instead of saying that we take money, we actually generate more money to be transferred back to the agricultural sector.
I am not sure if Mr Arnaoutakis is here tonight so therefore I am not going to answer that question.
To Mr Gklavakis, asking about maintenance of the coupled payments for tobacco, I have to refer to the answer I gave in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development on 24 June. I actually had the same opportunity to give the answer here in plenary on several occasions, namely that the Commission does not intend to re-examine the tobacco regime within the context of the health check. I will just repeat that the tobacco reform was agreed by all tobacco-producing countries in 2004, so therefore I see no reason to re-open this discussion. I hope that we can all agree that the money that will be transferred into the rural development policy, specially earmarked for support in those areas where tobacco production is taking place or has taken place, will be very important. We will also present to the Parliament a report on the consequences of the tobacco reform at the end of 2009."@en1
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