Strasbourg, 12/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament expresses “firm opposition” to the European Commission's decision to postpone the presentation of a proposal for reform of the fruit and vegetables sector (postponement announced in EUROPE 8939). With the adoption on Wednesday in Strasbourg of the report by Maria Herranz Garcia (EPP-ED, Spain) on the assessment of the common market organisation (CMO) for fruit and vegetables, the EP considers postponement of the proposal for one or two years “unacceptable and excessive” in view of the “urgent need to find a solution to the market crises, which cannot be resolved with the available management instruments”.
The EP calls on the Commission not to ignore a sector that accounts for a very significant share of the European Union's final agricultural output (17%) and which risks being marginalised in the negotiations on the new financial perspective. MEPs also stress the importance of finding new market management mechanisms to deal with the liberalisation of trade during WTO negotiations.
The EP urges the Commission to present a proposal by July 2005 to strengthen the role of producer organisations in the management of the markets and to introduce, in the context of the conditions governing recognition and operation, greater flexibility and subsidiarity for the Member States. The EP considers the current ceiling for the Community contribution to operational funds should be maintained but suggests an increase from 4.1% to 6% in the case of transnational partnerships, mergers, associations and cooperation between organisations. Also, the EP deems it necessary to raise the rate of Community co-funding to 60% in the case of collaboration, mergers and associations of producer organisations when certain criteria are met.
MEPs believe that the new Member States should benefit during a transitional period from more substantial aid for the creation and management of the above-mentioned producer groups. The EP calls for aid rates of 10%, 10%, 8%, 6% and 4% respectively in each of the first five years of a group's operation, instead of the 5%, 5%, 4%, 3% and 2% currently applying. The EP also takes the view that, for the new Member States, the maximum aid ceilings should be maintained (EUR 100 000, 100 000, 80 000, 60 000 and 40 000)
When it comes to the processed fruit and vegetables scheme, the EP considers it useful to raise the production thresholds for processed tomatoes (the existing rates do not allow developments in demand to be met and third country competition to be rivalled) and favours the introduction of support mechanisms for the processing of soft fruit (sour cherries, currants, raspberries, strawberries and gooseberries) and apples. Furthermore, it considers it would be appropriate to raise the citrus processing thresholds, stating it agrees to allow Member States that consider it appropriate to apply a region-specific approach to the thresholds for processed tomatoes. Finally, it maintains that there is “no justification” for decoupling aid for processed products within the purview of the WTO talks, since multilateral rules do not prohibit maintaining that part of agricultural aid linked to production.
Crisis management and competition from third countries
The EP calls for the introduction of an effective system for managing market crisis in order to prevent the abandonment of the sector in the face of major price collapses which, moreover, do not in practice have repercussions on consumer prices. It considers this system should allow producer organisations to play an active role in marketing their products. Also, the EP calls for the introduction of a fruit and vegetable production forecasting system by means of market observatories to track potential market crises and thereby enable a swifter response. It calls for the current withdrawals system to supplement a “safety fund” managed by the producer organisations and financed by the European Union, Member States and farmers. The safety fund would be used to: - compensate producers for withdrawals made in the event of crises; - make payments for the reduction of production; - and the establishment, on a voluntary basis for framers, of an income and adverse weather insurance scheme. In order to deal with structural problems, MEPs recommend that a plantation clearing project package be introduced (mainly for non-modern apple and sour cherry orchards).
The Commission is invited to study the setting in place of specific aid in favour of products that find themselves in a critical situation because of third country imports, such as soft fruit, garlic and farmed mushrooms, as well as sour cherries and sweet cherries, apple juice, processed apricots, asparagus, tomatoes, citrus fruit in segments or juice, and other fruit and vegetables for which a critical market situation may arise.
The EP is also calling on the Commission to promote implementation of information exchange mechanisms and coordination with third country producers operating on the same markets as Community producers due to the bottlenecks occurring at destination points. It hopes that the Commission and Member States analyse the possibility of creating European inspectors in charge of inspecting products in countries of origin. To assess Community production, the EP declared that it supports the setting up of a labelling system indicating the origin of a country's agricultural produce used in processed products.