Brussels, 24/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - During a seminar organised on Tuesday in Brussels by the Italian agricultural organisation, Coldiretti, the chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture, Joseph Daul, said he no longer believed in an agreement by the end of the month of June on the next financial perspectives (2007-2013). Mr Daul also criticised the position of the six Member States (Ed: including his country, France) recommending that the EU budget should not exceed 1% of the enlarged EU's Gross National Income (GNI) during the next financial framework. “We are in an extremely delicate situation. Since the elections last Sunday in Rhineland North Westphalia with Chancellor Schröder who caused early general elections in September or October, (…) I shall say it is practically impossible to find a solution” in June on the financial perspectives 2007-2013, the UMP member said. (Ed.: We recall that, in order to convene early elections judged necessary after the defeat of the SPD in the elections of 22 May, the German Chancellor must call for the confidence of the Bundestag, as he will no doubt do on 1 July, to allow the elections of the Bundestag on 18 or 25 September). “Dear farmer friends, until such time as we find a solution, nothing is lost - we are no worse off”, he assured, recalling that: “We have compulsory farm spending. We have a budget that suits us and we can calmly follow the dossier through”. Furthermore, Mr Daul said that a budget limited to 1% of GNI is not possible for managing tomorrow's Europe. One percent means a substantial reduction in farm subsidies (in the very short term with accession by Romania and Bulgaria) and the disappearance of rural development “in many of our countries”. “I hope that, at the beginning of next year, with an Austrian Presidency, we shall find a reasonable solution”, Mr Daul concluded.
On the same occasion, the European Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, promised that she would do her best to gain respect for the October 2002 agreement on agricultural spending and prevent Common Agricultural Policy from being renationalised “through cofinancing”. Ms Fischer Boel welcomed the support given by farm organisations to reform of CAP, telling representatives of Coldiretti and their colleagues that the farmers will need them for implementing this reform. “I am convinced the new regulation on rural development will provide farmers with excellent opportunities and that, if they know how to seize these opportunities, agriculture will significantly contribute to European growth and competitiveness”, she asserted, adding: “I am banking on young farmers”.
The vice-president of the Commission responsible for justice and internal affairs, Franco Frattini, said during the seminar he believed that, at the end of the day, a compromise will be reached on the financial perspectives to meet the “expectations of Europe”. “I say Europe, not the nation States”, he stressed, saying that “the governments are asking a great deal of Europe and the time has come not to simply ask but to agree on a common strategy”. The Commission is determined to defend its proposal on the financial perspectives as, without an adequate level of resources, one cannot meet the needs expressed by citizens, he asserted. “Disillusionment favours euroscepticism”, the Commissioner warned. Mr Frattini announced that, in “just a few weeks”, the Commission will suggest harmonising “norms, even penal, that punish counterfeiting” at European level, including for foodstuffs bearing a “distinguishing trade mark”, through “rules and sanctions, even severe”. (Later, with several journalists, Mr Frattini spoke of spending under his portfolio and asked: Would citizens understand if we were to refuse the Union the necessary means, for example, to assure security of airports at European level or defend our infrastructures against the threat of terrorism?)
Paolo Bedoni, Coldiretti Chairman, opened the work by recalling the importance of dialogue carried out in order to gain the support of farmers for CAP reform. For dialogue in the greatest possible transparency, we preferred, he explained, to come and work in Brussels rather than “remain in Italy to protest”. Mr Bedoni placed special emphasis on the “particularly precious” work carried out by Coldiretti with the farming organisations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe with a view to their accession. “From this dialogue also arose our conviction that early reform with a truly innovative content was a necessary choice and in the common interest for the Union enlarged to 25 and then to 27”, Mr Bedoni stressed. On the subject of the financial perspectives for 2007-2013, he admitted that a reduction in the Community's financial commitment could seriously weaken, perhaps irreparably, the most innovative aspects of reform before it is fully launched, and compromise “what we called the 'regeneration process' covering themes such as food quality and safety”.