Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-20-Speech-2-409"
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"en.20100420.15.2-409"2
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"Mr President, it therefore falls to us to close these debates this evening, and it is already late. I would like, first of all, to excuse the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr De Castro, who is unable to be here with us this evening for reasons that you know. Like other Members of this House, he has been unable to leave his country to come and participate in our debates in Strasbourg.
Finally, the question that we wished to ask you is how the Commission plans to anticipate and prevent these price falls in the medium term. What market regulation mechanism can be used to limit sudden increases and, above all, sudden price falls? What work is the Commission currently doing and how does it view this issue?
Those are the three elements that I wished to mention: the milk fund, perspectives on the dairy crisis and, more generally, the way in which the Commission intends to deal with this issue of price volatility and price falls.
The issue with which we are concerned results from the general crisis being experienced by the entire agricultural sector. As we know today, we are experiencing a crisis and, above all, seeing a fall in prices and agricultural revenues that is affecting cereal producers, livestock producers, whether pork or beef producers, and also – and I say this on behalf of Mr De Castro – olive oil producers, and which is hitting and has hit dairy producers extremely hard.
Faced with this crisis and this price fall, it goes without saying that Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development wishes to find out from the Commission what we can do right now and in the future to escape this crisis and, above all, what measures could be adopted in the coming months to support farmers and to ensure that the agricultural markets are less volatile.
The first question that I would like to ask the Commissioner is more specifically about the dairy crisis: what is the situation with regard to the measures adopted by Parliament and the Council concerning this dairy crisis and, in particular, to the application of the famous EUR 300 million milk fund that had been agreed? That is the first question because I think that, if we are going to take legislative decisions, then we must know how they are being applied.
As I was saying, all types of production are currently being hit by a price fall and a deep crisis in the markets. That brings us to a question and to seek answers on what we might call market regulation and the way in which we can limit this infamous price volatility.
Nobody complains when prices are rising, especially not farmers. It is European consumers who fear agricultural price rises, which limit their purchasing power and impact on their ability to buy agricultural products.
It is when prices are low and when they are falling for long periods that producers are penalised in terms of their incomes and, above all, and most seriously for European agriculture, in terms of their abilities to invest and to prepare for the future. Agriculture is a hard industry; the investments are substantial and it takes a long time to obtain a return on those investments. We need to stabilise prices.
Commissioner, the question from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and its Chair, Mr De Castro, is composed of two points.
Firstly, you have announced a number of dairy-related measures to be implemented before the end of the year. This is important. Can you give us some details of these? Secondly, there are specific measures that need to be taken on all the markets, not just dairy."@en1
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