Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-19-Speech-4-509-000"
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"en.20120419.20.4-509-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in order to avoid desertification and preserve the prosperity of our territories, the new text presented to us by the Commission gives Member States the opportunity to provide greater support to farmers in areas subject to natural limitations through a supplementary allowance. This aid will be added to the funds already available under the rural development policy.
Five per cent of the budget is assigned to farmers with land falling in Less-Favoured Areas, with a bonus of up to EUR 300 per hectare. However, the issue that is really worrying farmers is the definition of Less-Favoured Areas. The eight biophysical criteria may not make for a reasonable and understandable delimitation and do not seem to respond to the interests of farmers or tax-payers. The proposed thresholds are too rigid and the results do not meet the desired objectives.
I maintain, furthermore, that measures similar to those set out in Article 68 on helping vulnerable sectors or regions ought to be retained. Aid for vulnerable sectors should however be restricted in order to avoid distortions of competition. Here I am referring, for example, to the cultivation of ‘monumental’ plants such as olive trees in Apulia, southern Italy. Following the reform, it has been forecast that the olive-growing sector would lose 60% of its value against previous levels. The longevity of monumental olive trees is of huge importance for the region, including in ecological, economic and productive terms: ecologically, it is important because keeping these crops healthy and productive means carrying out work on hydrogeological defence works in areas subject to erosion; in economic and productive terms it is important because it represents one of the region’s main revenue streams, since in Apulia alone there are 1 200 oil mills working 53 varieties of olives of undeniable value and quality.
In conclusion, we are asking the Commission to put alternative, suitable thresholds into its proposal on biophysical criteria and to make it possible for these criteria to be used cumulatively, with physical and geographical criteria added to other production-related criteria."@en1
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