18 ottobre 2011

Message at the inauguration of European Fruit Summit by Dacian Ciolos

Dear President Bruni, Dear delegates,
Following the problems that the European Fruit & Vegetables sector has faced this year, lam particularly keen to send a message of encouragement today to your conference - the third European Fruit Summit. lam very busy at the moment preparing the Commission 's legislative proposals for the reform of the CAP, which are due for publication on October 12 - next Wednesday - and so this letter is the best chance I have of communicating to you this week.
I don't need to tell you how serious the e-coli crisis was that we saw in the summer. Thankfully the volume of trade in vegetables has generally recovered from the crisis and prices have in general recovered close to seasonal levels (with a number of exceptions). I am optimistic that the incident will not have a lasting effect on consumption. Our response was particularly rapid. The crisis fund that I was able to mobilise - worth €227 million in the end
- will have been paid out in full by the middle of October. When the dairy sector experienced a major market crisis in 2009, it took well over 6 months for producers to receive any of the EU emergency support package. As I say, our response was particularly rapid.
Coming at a time when we were drafting our proposals for the future of the CAP, there are perhaps 2 main messages that I take out of the crisis. Firstly, while we must strive towards a more market-oriented sector, incidents such as these remind us that market forces alone are not sufficient for something as strategically important as our food production. The unexpected can always happen, and the future Common Agriculture Policy must be equipped to provide a rapid response to such problems. I cannot comment in detail about next week's package, but I want to assure you that there will be a number of elements in the proposals aimed at helping producers in times of market difficulty - varying from maintaining the existing safety net mechanisms and providing a clearer mechanism for a similar rapid response, to longer-term
schemes that encourage farmers to help themselves, perhaps by buying into mutual funds or working more closely together in Producer Organisations. The other main message I got was the reaction of the general public, and the general reminder to them that food does not grow on supermarket shelves, but is the product of hard work by the farming sector. It is perhaps something that they sometimes take too much for granted. One of the key messages that I have sought to underline ever since taking up office
last year is that the EU's Common Agriculture Policy is not just for farmers, but it is for all EU citizens - in terms of providing food supplies, and maintaining our natural resources, and preserving the territorial balance across the EU. At a time of budget austerity we need taxpayers and consumers to understand more dearly why the CAP is important for them. Various changes in the reform, such as our "greening" measures is just one of the elements which we hope will renew this alliance between farmers and the broader public.
One final thought about the reform, which I should mention is that we will also be looking at ways of encouraging a wider participation in the School Fruit Scheme. Sorry, but you '11 have to wait until next week to get the full details of the proposals. In the meantime, I wish you an interesting meeting and a continued recovery after this summer 's difficulties.
Best regards,
Dacián Cìolo§