Brussels, 01/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Debating the draft budget for 2012 on Tuesday 30 August, the European Parliament (EP) agriculture committee called for a special fund to be set up for fruit and vegetable growers and questioned the reductions brought in by the EU Council of Ministers.
In the draft budget for 2012, the European Commission earmarked €500 million for fruit and vegetable producer organisations' operating funds. The Council of Ministers reduced this sum to €420 million. On Wednesday, however, the EP agriculture committee approved the Commission's allocation.
The committee recommended the €90 million budget suggested by the European Commission for the programme to distribute fruit in schools. The Council would prefer a budget of €64 million.
The committee also called for the budget for the programme to distribute milk to school children to be held at its 2011 level of €90 million. The Commission and Council would like reductions to €81 million and €76 million respectively.
Special fund for fruit and vegetable growers. The agriculture committee called for a €600 million fund to be set up to compensate European producers of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and courgettes for losses sustained and/or to supplement exceptionally low incomes resulting from the E.coli crisis between June and August 2011. This move was hailed by the agricultural organisations in the EU, Copa-Cogeca, which say, in a press release, that European producers suffered losses of €400 million per week.
The committee recommended, too, €3 million to fund a European agricultural prices and margins monitoring body, €3 million for a European animal welfare network pilot project, and €2 million for a homeopathic and medicines of plant origin pilot project in the area of animal husbandry.
The proposals from the agriculture committee will be debated by the EP budgets committee between 4 and 6 October. (L.C./transl.rt)