Brussels, 06/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's "Agriculture" Committee has altered its stance on the reform of the common import system for bananas, with the obvious desire no longer to block the procedure and see a settlement to the dispute on the basis of the "1st come 1st served" system, now being envisaged by the Union. At the same time, like the rapporteur Michel Dary (F, PES), it reaffirmed its support for ACP and Community producers, renewing its request for a 10-year transitional period and its rejection of the automatic move to an exclusively tariff system. This outcome, half-way between the proposal under discussion and the position of April last which the European Commission had deemed inadmissible, could enable the plenary assembly to issue its opinion, so long awaited, on 12 December.
The parliamentary committee backed both the proposed amendments Mr. Dary had previously tabled and the formula compromise unofficially negotiated between its Chair, Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe Zu Baringdorf (D, Greens/EFA), and Commissioner Franz Fischler. The draft resolution to have emerged from this effort at conciliation thus stresses: i) opposition of euro-MPs to the automatic abolition of tariff quotas in 2006 and their insistence on a 10-year transitional period until the setting up of an exclusively tariff system; ii) their "green light" to the "1st come 1st service" mechanism for managing the transitional quota regime and to a tariff preference with a ceiling of 300 euro a tonne, or half-way between the European Commission's initial proposal (275 euro/t) and the Parliamentary position of April (at least 300 ecu/t). The Parliamentary Committee hopes that these concessions "will contribute in breaking the deadlock" going back to April last, when the EP blocked the Commission's legislative project (the latter having rejected the Parliamentary amendments) "for fear that it should lead to the European market being flooded with cheaper dollar bananas and bankrupt vulnerable producers in the Union's most outlying regions and ACP countries".
Aware of the limited impact that the non-binding Parliamentary opinion may have on negotiations that involves many other parties, inside and outside the Union, the MEPs expect the European Commission finally not to accept the modifications on which they had decided to insist. Nevertheless, by confirming their concerns and their backing for preferential producers, "they will nevertheless have had their word to say in this affair", a close source stressed. The Euro-MPs also hope that their "green light" to the draft reform will motivate the European Commission to make concessions to them or, at least, one: agree to present an annual report, from January 2002, assessing the impact of the new regime on European producers and consumers, on ACP suppliers, as well as on trade in biological bananas and the "fair trade" network, with proposals for any changes that may be required.