The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Niels Busk (ALDE, DK) by 468 votes to 14 with no abstentions, and confirmed the position taken by its Agriculture Committee. (Please see the document dated 08/05/2007.) Whilst approving the Commission's proposal to simplify the EU's common agricultural policy by merging the 21 existing sector-specific market organisations (CMOs) into a single regulation, MEPs stated that this decision should be solely an act of technical simplification and must not introduce reforms through the back door.
Parliament considered that any decision of a political nature must continue to be adopted by the Council, after consulting the European Parliament. Accordingly, it opposed 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, as this would prejudge the outcome of the reforms.
Parliament also felt that establishing a single management committee for all agricultural sectors, as suggested by the Commission, would raise doubts as to how to ensure that the necessary sectoral expertise is available. The report therefore calls for the setting up of four management committees, one for meat, one for dairy products, one for vegetables and one for perennial crops.
It went on to recommend that the carcass classification system should continue to be established by the Council and not by the Commission.
Mandatory import licenses should continue to be required for cereals, sugar, rice, flax and hemp, as well as products from the milk, beef and veal sectors and the olive sector, with derogations only for cereal products, sugar or rice and then only under certain conditions.
MEPs felt that framework rules governing contractual relations between buyers and sellers of sugar beet should only lay down minimum guarantees because of the difficulty of providing for uniform purchase terms throughout the Community.
Lastly, they suggested that the new regulation should refer to “organisations of an interbranch” nature rather than "interbranch organisations" to ensure that all sectoral bodies are targeted, whatever their designation or status.