Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-14-Speech-2-361-000"
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"en.20120214.19.2-361-000"2
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"−
Mr President, allow me to make a few comments following the debate on this proposal.
Some of you pointed out that the milk quotas have been eliminated and that we should keep them. I would remind you that the 2009 milk crisis happened when we still had quotas. That shows that the existing quota system is no longer a solution in the current market conditions. That is why the Council decided in 2008 to put an end to that system. Therefore, the Commission no longer has anything to do with it. It is a Council Regulation that has ratified the decision.
I am very well aware that this milk package may not resolve all of the problems in the milk sector, but we wanted to act as quickly as possible. Mr Dantin said that he did not agree with me about the word ‘quickly’. I feel, however, that we have acted quickly given that the High Level Group presented its conclusions in spring 2010. The Commission presented its legislative proposals, after its entire internal procedure in autumn, at the end of 2010. We are now at the start of 2012 and, following a codecision procedure, are about to reach the end of the process.
In this ‘milk package’, the Commission has proposed, and I have undertaken to present a progress report in 2014, analysing again the situation in the milk sector and market before the milk quotas end in 2015, and determining, on the basis of that report and analysis of the market situation, whether any additional proposals need to be presented.
Some of you highlighted the problem of cooperatives. As Mr Nicholson said, cooperatives receive special treatment because the aspects of the proposal that do not directly concern them are not applied to them. Cooperatives per se are a solution that individual producers did not have because in that context the producers were themselves also responsible for processing.
As regards what is known as a soft landing, in other words the phasing-out of milk quotas, some of you again stated that the Commission was not pulling its weight and that it did not want to present any other proposals. However, it is always the farmers, and even some of you, who say that a certain degree of stability is necessary sometimes to be able to plan, to some extent, for the medium term. When it comes to the soft landing, gradual increases in the quotas until they are stopped in 2015, the Council took a decision in 2008. There is thus no reason now for the Commission to seek to overturn, just a few years later, a decision taken by the Council.
As regards the transparency of the food chain and the negotiating relationships between producers, processors and retailers, I would remind you that the Commission has set up a forum on the food supply chain, which is currently examining all of these issues. The Commission has decided not to submit any legislative proposals before listening to the actors in the food chain and before allowing the actors to talk to one another and submit proposals, so as not to regulate further when the problems can be resolved in other ways. At the last meeting of this food chain forum, the Commission stated clearly that in June of this year it would take stock of the work done by the forum and, in particular, the proposals submitted by the actors in the food chain. On that basis, the Commission will appear before Parliament and before the Council with a report and, if necessary, proposals in that area.
Once again, I thank you, and Mr Nicholson in particular, for your efforts to conclude these negotiations and get us to a point where these Commission proposals can be adopted today."@en1
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