02/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - MEP Nicola Zingaretti (Democratici di sinistra) has sent a letter signed by thirty Italian representatives of all political groups to the European Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, drawing attention to the economic difficulties experienced by Italian agriculture, mainly in the south. Speaking in a press release of the severe protests over recent days in Puglia on the part of wine growers and tomato producers, MEPs mainly call on the Commission to authorise “crisis distillation in Italy, as is the case in other countries”, and to speed up the rate of reform of the common market organisation (CMO) for fruit and vegetables. The Parliament, they recall, has already warned against the risk of postponing such an important reform till 2006.