Brussels, 21/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on Tuesday with MEPs from the EP agriculture committee, Commissioner Franz Fischler returned to the problems posed by Turkey's EU accession with regard to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). He said that he did not intend to make any "great waves", when he addressed MEPs, referring to the letter addressed to his counterparts in which he expressed his hostility to Turkey's integration into the EU (EUROPE 11 September). He underlined that he only wanted to make a "contribution" to the debate before the Commission's recommendation was made public on 6 October for or against opening accession negotiations with Turkey.
Fischler refused to talk to MEPs about "general policy" and limited himself to listing the agricultural problems in the dossier.
- Turkish territory is equivalent to that of the ten new EU Member States;
- there are certain sectors in Turkey where prices are much higher than those in the EU (Fischler cited the example of internal prices for cereals which are 30% higher than in the EU);
- "we'll have to face the problem of income";
- "there will be the enormous problem of rural development which will need resolving" the same thing went for the problems of Turkey's adaptation to EU phytosanitary and veterinary standards.
Mr Fischler also raised the difficult of the very competitive position of Turkish farmers in certain kinds of production, such a shell nuts (hazel nuts and almonds) and fruit. He concluded that these were the problems that they would need to confront if enlargement included Ankara.