Strasbourg, 14/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament refused on Tuesday to debate under the urgent procedure, as requested by the Council, the proposals: - amending rules for support for producers of certain arable crops, so as to include therein flax and hemp for fibre production; - on the common organisation of the market for these two products.
On Tuesday evening, in a closed-door session, the Committee on Agriculture held an exchange of views on this subject with European Commissioner Franz Fischler. The Chair of the EP Committee, German Green Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf, acknowledged that the Commissioner had been "very cooperative" and that views had come closer together, but that the compromises reached could not yet be made sufficiently precise. Three things count for Parliament, said Mr Graefe zu Baringdorf: a) preventing abuse in aid schemes; b) making possible the development of these ecologically high-value raw materials; c) encouraging the development of the processing industry in this sector. The request for the urgent procedure "came too soon", said Mr Graefe, who hopes a definitive compromise can be secured for the July session. As rapporteur, "I cannot support the position of the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture", asserted Agnes Schierhuber (ÖVP), who also thanked the European Commission for its "openness to dialogue", while observing the failure to agree on written compromises. "Up to now, we have had no codecision on the common agriculture policy", noted the Austrian MEP. The Schierhuber report on flax and hemp was debated at the May session, but the vote was postponed.