Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-07-Speech-1-242-000"
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"en.20110307.26.1-242-000"2
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"Mr President, the Commission welcomes this report and thanks the rapporteur, Mr Papastamkos, and the members of both committees – the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on International Trade – for their efforts in addressing a complex topic in a comprehensive fashion. A number of recommendations in this report echo the political vision and priorities pursued by the Commission, as extensively outlined in a number of communications.
I have to admit that trade liberalisation raises significant challenges for EU agriculture and for the European Commission, too. However, as Parliament has also recognised, there are a number of negotiations on international trade that present opportunities for our agriculture. We also need to look at the wider benefits, for the European economy as a whole, that are potentially deliverable by the opening up of trade.
Overall, it is important to maintain a coherent message. We need this message at the range of ongoing talks to which we are committed, whether on Doha, with a number of ASEAN and African partners, or with the Mercosur countries.
It would therefore be wrong to simply portray increased trade openness as a mere lose-lose scenario for EU agriculture. As we have significant offensive interests in agriculture, trade agreements provide new opportunities stemming from our partners’ concessions. This is backed by hard facts. Preliminary figures for 2010 show the EU to be a net exporter of agri-food products, with over EUR 90 billion worth of agri-food exports and a trade surplus of more than EUR 6 billion. That trend can be explained by the strategic focusing of the EU agri-food sector on the delivery of high quality – as has been mentioned – and high value products, for which world demand is evidently growing.
Thanks to its unique and diverse know-how, the EU agri-food sector has a strong card to play on the global marketplace. I agree that we have to invest in that card. In that context, consistent market orientation of the reforms of the CAP over the last two decades has helped enhance the competitiveness of the agriculture sector by encouraging farmers to adapt to market solutions. At the same time, however, the diversity of agriculture in the EU’s 27 Member States should be fully appreciated. If the EU is to secure the long-term future of its agricultural areas in a territorially and environmentally balanced fashion, we have to respect that.
We have to understand also that particularly sensitive sectors cannot be expected to sustain an excessive level of additional imports that would put further pressure on average domestic prices and production. The very challenge, when negotiating multilateral or bilateral trade agreements that impact on EU agriculture, is therefore to strike the right balance between our offensive and our defensive interests in agriculture, as well as between agriculture and other areas of our trade negotiations.
The Commission is very conscious of this and will continue to pursue that goal in close cooperation with Parliament. Therefore, I would like Parliament to help us in getting the balance right and in sending the right signal to the rest of the world."@en1
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