Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-06-Speech-1-065"
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"en.20100906.17.1-065"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the increase in the price of foodstuffs, the functioning of the agri-food sector, price transparency, negotiating power and the repercussions for farmers’ revenues have been at the top of the political agenda in recent months.
As for derived products, commodities and the issue of speculation, we in the European Commission are currently putting the finishing touches to a legislative proposal of general application, and I am working in consultation and very closely with my colleague, Commissioner Barnier, on this. Other proposals will follow as part of the review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
We must also make progress in analysing how added value is distributed within the entire agri-food chain; this is a point to which I attach particular importance. As I was saying, imbalances between the negotiating power of producers and the rest of the agri-food chain has put serious pressure on producer margins in the agricultural sector. Therefore, I believe that, here too, there is work to be done and an issue to be addressed, within the context of the CAP reform.
I should also like to stress in this regard that the competitiveness of the EU agri-food sector cannot be guaranteed to the detriment of some of its component parts, and I believe that agri-food chain operators should be aware that putting too much pressure on commodity producers, on farmers, may well harm the entire chain, its economic power and its representativeness within the European industrial sector.
May I thank you once again for the report presented by the European Parliament. It is a very useful contribution to the achievement of our common objective, which is to have a better functioning food supply chain. I shall pay close attention to your debate today and to the vote on this report.
That is why the report presented today by Mr Bové – may I thank him personally, as well as all the members of Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and of the other committees that have contributed to the drafting of this report – outlines the main challenges facing us. Moreover, as Mr Bové was saying, these are issues that are not only highly topical, but which also feature among the decisions to be taken in the short and medium terms, in particular, within the context of the common agricultural policy reform that we are working on.
I share most of the concerns expressed in this report. I believe that the functioning of the food chain must be further improved. All of the operators concerned have everything to gain from this: consumers, the retail sector, the processing sector and, in particular – as Mr Bové was saying – farmers, who are probably the ones who face the greatest difficulties in obtaining a fair share of the revenues that are divided up within the chain.
The Commission has recently taken a number of initiatives in this regard. I would like to mention one or two of them. Firstly, the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agri-Food Industry has made a number of strategic recommendations. Mr Bové takes up some of the analyses and enriches some of these proposals in the report he is presenting to us. These proposals will be supplemented by a high level forum, launched recently by Commissioner Tajani, and which will focus, in particular, on issues regarding contractual arrangements, logistics and competitiveness.
With regard to price transparency, it is, in fact, considered essential to the smooth functioning of the chain, and this is an area in which there is work to be done. As you know, the food price monitoring tool has been introduced within the framework of Eurostat, but it must be refined. It will be refined so that the information obtained can actually be of use to operators in the food chain, to farmers and consumers, and to all the other stakeholders too.
The Commission has recently published a retail market monitoring report, in which it is acknowledged that ‘structural inefficiencies’ in the food supply chain could contribute to ‘asymmetrical price transmission, price rigidity and unfair contractual conditions being imposed on primary producers’. I would point out that interested parties are invited to submit comments on this report before 10 September of this year. This report is the responsibility of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Internal Market, and it will doubtless provide us with some new elements that can be used to devise measures so that this asymmetrical price transmission, which causes structural inefficiencies along the chain, can be remedied.
The Commission is also preparing some legislative proposals with a view to improving the legislation on the quality of agricultural and agri-food products. We have already had occasion to speak about this issue, including in this Chamber. By the end of the year, the Commission will present the legislative package on this issue, and we are going to present some proposals, among other things, in order to support local and regional food marketing initiatives, and to enable producers, especially small producers, agricultural producers who are trying to enter direct sales markets, or short food supply chains, to make their products more easily identifiable on the markets and thus to help consumers, too, to make more informed choices when buying products.
As part of the proposals on the post-2013 common agricultural policy, I am also going to ensure that instruments for promoting agricultural products can be improved. I believe that this is an area in which the European Commission, precisely under the new conditions, can do more to help agri-food producers and the food supply chain to promote products more effectively on the European market and the global market alike.
I would also mention here that the High Level Expert Group on Milk has presented its report. As a follow-up to this report, the Commission is going to present – I repeat, by the end of the year – a legislative proposal for the milk sector that will address, among other things, the issues relating to producers’ negotiating power and the opportunities for them to organise themselves in order to better negotiate their contracts, as well as to contractual arrangements within the chain. In this context, I also plan to address the issue of the role of interprofessional organisations in the smooth functioning of the chain, particularly in the dairy sector."@en1
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