Strasbourg, 11/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, in Strasbourg on Thursday (by 59 votes in favour, 14 against and 3 abstentions), of the report by Duarte Freitas (EPP-ED, Portugal), the European Parliament has made some small changes to the proposal on agricultural measures applicable as of 2006, to the benefit of extremely remote areas of the Union (a specific supply regime and a support regime for local products). The Commission proposes to facilitate the management of programmes and to bring the decision-making process closer to the main parties involved, the regions themselves, whilst maintaining the level of aid to be granted.
To simplify the programmes, the EP provides that it will be up to each Member State to draw up the list of eligible products at programming stage. This list will indicate the products, quantities and levels of aid. Under the parliamentary amendments, the Community support programmes will contain “the promotion of the improvement of the environment and the rural space, and agricultural methods, and the formation of the countryside by encouraging sustainable land management”. Provisions have also been added for the Commission to propose to the Council the necessary derogations to allow the rural development programmes to be carried out whilst taking account of the specific nature of extremely remote areas.
The modifications introduced by the EP also: -extend the scope of the programmes to include phytosanitary measures; -guarantee the sales of all regional milk production (according to the MEPs, the current minimum quantity has caused the dairy industry of Madeira some problems) and to include non-fat milk-based preparations destined for children in the proposal; -increase the period for the restructuring of viticulture in Madeira (31 December 2013, as against 31 December 2006 in the initial proposal); authorise the import from third countries, without customs duty, of animals of bovine, equine, ovine, bubaline and caprine animals for fattening; -grant, for the region of the Azores, aid to supply in male reproductive animals of meat breeds; -provide the option to import sugar C to Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores. Furthermore, the EP's amendments aim to provide the greatest possible budgetary flexibility between the measures of the same programme, for the entire period in question.