In adopting the report drafted by Mr Niels BUSK (ADLE, DK), the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted, under the cooperation procedure, the main lines of the European Commission’s proposal for a Council regulation on establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products. Nevertheless, the members of the Committee wish to ensure that this act of simplification remains purely technical and propose a number of amendments.
Members consider that any decision of a political nature must continue to be adopted by the Council - in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 37 of the Treaty - after consulting the European Parliament. For this reason, they oppose the Commission’s proposal to remove the option of public intervention for pigmeat in the context of this simplification. Members do not want provisions concerning fruit, vegetables and wine to be incorporated in the common organisation of agricultural markets until the completion of the reforms under way in these sectors.
While the Commission proposes replacing the existing sectoral management committees by a single committee for all agricultural sectors, the report calls for the retention of 4 management committees to reflect the mechanisms of different markets: one for meat, one for dairy products, one for vegetables and one for perennial crops.
Members of the Committee recommend that the system of classification of carcasses should always be laid down by the Council instead of being decided by the Commission. They also want to ensure that importation certificates should be retained for cereals, sugar, rice, flax and hemp, milk, beef and olive oil, with the possibility of some exceptions under certain conditions in the cereals, sugar and rice sectors.
Members also consider that framework provisions governing contractual relations between purchasers and sellers of sugarbeet should be drawn up. These measures should be limited to defining the necessary minimum guarantees for sugarbeet producers and the sugar industry for the proper functioning of the sugar sector, by allowing for the possibility of derogations by means of agreements within the trade.
The Committee proposes that the new Regulation makes reference to ‘interbranch activities and agreements’ in order to exclude any risk of the Regulation being interpreted in such a way as to call into question existing or future organisations of an ‘interbranch’ nature.
Lastly, the Commission is invited, within 2 years of the adoption of the Regulation, to evaluate the lessons learnt from the work of the management committees and groups of sectoral experts and shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on this subject accompanied by the comments of the Member States.