The European Parliament’s agriculture committee draft report on price volatility on agricultural markets will contain a section devoted to “updating crisis management measures”, said rapporteur Angélique Delahaye (EPP, France) in Brussels on Tuesday 30 August (EUROPE 11576).
Initially Delahaye did not want to make mention of the issues of crisis management and the formation of prices in her report on price volatility. She has made a U-turn, however, as a result of the depth of the crisis in agriculture and the many amendments put down by her committee colleagues. The report will, therefore, contain a paragraph on crisis management tools.
Over 400 amendments have been lodged and the rapporteur hopes that it will be possible for compromise amendments to be presented when voting takes place in committee on 8 November. The report will be debated by the European Parliament at its plenary session in December.
Nicola Caputo (S&D, Italy) said that the S&D Group had done a great deal of work on this issue. He intends to argue that: - cooperation in agriculture must be encouraged to tackle the crisis together; - public aid is needed (public agricultural aid has fallen by 10% in Europe when it is rising elsewhere in the world); - bases need to be created so that inter-branch organisation can be better organised “to protect the interests of producers, and in particular those who produce for transnational markets”; - risk management instruments are required (insurance to pool risks). Caputo also argued that there is a need for counter-cyclical measures. Lastly, he called for the fruit and vegetables and the olive oil sectors to be brought within the area of responsibility of the European price observatory.
Ramon Luis Valcarcel (EPP, Spain) said that market stabilisation instruments were urgently needed in order to strengthen producer organisations and give them enough power to resist abuses by supermarkets. “We have to send the message that regulation will be brought into counter unfair trade practices”, he said.
Maria Lidia Senra Rodriguez (GUE/NGL, Spain) reproached the EU for “beating about the bush, when thousands of farms are disappearing”. She does not see much point in crisis management instruments and called for a change of direction in the CAP (bringing supply more closely into line with demand and providing farmers with decent prices). Ming Flanagan (GUE/NGL, Ireland) opined that trade agreements, such as those with Canada and the United States, would worsen the crisis.
Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium) argued that the devastating impact of price hyper-volatility and abnormally low prices in the dairy sector over the last 18 months had to be addressed. “If we don’t regulate, there will be over-production and under production”, warned Jean-Paul Denanot (S&D, France). Jan Huitema (ALDE, Netherlands) stressed that public money had to be used carefully and argued that cooperation in the food supply chain had to be improved. He also called for structural solutions.
Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) said he feared that Parliament would bring forward good proposals that would lead nowhere because of reluctance within the Council. In his view, production levels of, for example, milk should be regulated because they have an impact on prices. Éric Andrieu (S&D, France) called for a “market management toolbox”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)