Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-06-Speech-1-064"
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"en.20100906.17.1-064"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to begin by thanking all my colleagues from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, and especially the shadow rapporteurs, for their support in this task.
To remedy this, I propose that the Commission creates a European farm prices and margins observatory, on the model of that which exists in the United States. This body will be responsible for defining European farmers’ production costs. It will tell us the real costs of a litre of milk, a kilo of wheat or a kilo of beef from the moment it leaves the farm. This information will serve as a basis for negotiations between farmers and the other operators in the food chain. This body will also be responsible for assessing which sectors claim all the added value, to the detriment of producers and consumers.
The European Commission would thus be able to identify which operators are abusing the balance of power and abusing their dominant position. It also seems crucial to make the 20 largest European companies draft an annual report on their market share and the internal margins they generate.
Transparency poses no threat to the market economy. On the contrary, it is an absolute necessity in order to prevent the abuses that have been observed in agriculture and in many other sectors, in particular, that of finance.
Who can claim that, when farmers sell their milk or their meat, they are on an equal footing with multinationals, which influence commodity price building on the global markets? The balance of power is completely unbalanced, and some would say unfair.
In order to restore the balance, a first emergency measure would be to allow farmers to come together within producers’ organisations. The second, additional measure involves prohibiting selling of goods below purchase price at Community level.
Forced discounts, subsequent alterations to contract terms, and unjustified listing fees are a common occurrence. They are hitting farmers and the thousands of small and medium-sized processing companies hard, because they have to go through the large-scale distribution sector in order to sell their products. The European Commission must take stock of the extent of these anti-economic practices, and it must take the measures required to stop them.
Lastly, speculation on agricultural commodities is a scourge. Financiers and speculators are looking for instant rewards and instant profits. For them, poverty, hunger and famine are synonymous with profits. We did not think that we would relive the 2008 riots, but we could not have been more mistaken. Since June, the price of wheat has risen by more than 70%. The prices of maize, soya and rice are also on the increase. Last week, seven people were killed in Maputo, Mozambique, for demonstrating against the 30% increase in food prices.
Are we going to continue to stand by and do nothing, as we did two years ago? Are we going to continue to put up with investment banks bankrupting European farmers and crushing the men and women of our planet?
I call on the European Union to take the initiative to create a global agency to regulate the markets.
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to send out a strong message so that the new CAP is fairer for European farmers and consumers and so that there is fair competition between operators which allows for the creation of a framework for regulating the markets and which gives short shrift to speculators. It is the responsibility of the European Parliament, as it prepares to exercise its joint decision-making power in agricultural matters, not to submit to any pressure, from wherever it may come. Our message must remain clear and consistent.
This report, like the one by Mr Lyon, is part of our major debate on the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP). We have managed to reach a large number of compromises, which have been adopted by a large majority in our group – by 32 votes to 4.
I believe that our message to the Commission is a powerful one: we all want greater transparency in the food chain and legislation that guarantees fair competition between farmers and all operators in the food chain. We also want concrete measures, in Europe and elsewhere, to combat speculation and abuses of market power and to safeguard farmers’ revenues.
I am surprised that, on the initiative of one or two political groups in this House, we are being asked to vote tomorrow on a long list of separate votes, which go against the powerful and consensual message that we adopted by a large majority in committee.
Could it be that events over the summer have made you change your minds? I rather think that the intense lobbying carried out in recent days by the large-scale distribution sector and certain operators in the agri-food industry is the reason for the excessive number of separate votes. In any case, I cannot imagine, ladies and gentlemen, that you would give in to such pressure in order to weaken our common message.
Our committee has taken stock of the crisis affecting European farmers. It intends to propose concrete, strong measures: in less than 10 years, the Union has lost 3.5 million farming jobs. It is a massacre on a terrible scale. Bulgaria, for example, has lost one in two farmers. In 2009, revenues plummeted. In France and Germany, farmers have lost 20% of their revenue on average, and in Hungary, they have lost more than 35%. Farming and rural communities are in danger of disappearing.
Forced as it was by the exasperation of farmers and by the demonstrations of dairy cattle breeders, in December 2009, the European Commission published a communication entitled, ‘A better functioning food supply chain in Europe’. The latter shows that, between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of the added value of the food chain that went to agricultural producers decreased from 31% to 24%. The prices paid to farmers are falling in virtually every sector, without European consumers benefiting as a result.
The Commission says that these problems are linked to increased concentration in the wholesale, processing and distribution sectors, which impose their will on unorganised producers.
The Commission is concerned about the lack of transparency in relation to pricing and margins. It recognises the difficulty in obtaining precise and reliable data, and admits that it does not have the information it needs to adapt its policies quickly and effectively."@en1
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