Mr President, at the press conference following the last Council of Agricultural Ministers, Commissioner Fischler made it clear that he would not be making any proposals on the nut sector because he was waiting to hear Parliament’s opinion on his report on the operation of the COM in fruit and vegetables. Leaving aside the fact that the issue of nuts has been included in three resolutions tabled by this Parliament in the last year, and that the Commission’s report was designed for the Council and not for Parliament, it would be appropriate to look at the background of the issue of fruit and vegetables. A radical reform of the COM in fruit and vegetables was carried out more than five years ago but, unfortunately, time has shown that the concentration of supply has not reached the hoped-for level and has highlighted other issues which seriously limit the effectiveness of the measures implemented in that reform. In October last year, Parliament adopted a report which highlighted the fact that only 40% of produce is marketed through producers’ organisations. Given that the main instruments of the COM in fruit and vegetables centre on producers’ organisations, we can only conclude, as this House did at the time, that what we have is only half a COM. Consequently, at the time, we tabled a series of amendments designed to improve the effectiveness of the COM, including amendments to resolve the problem of nuts. In that debate, the Commissioner, Mr Fischler, stated that, although he viewed many of the amendments sympathetically, these went beyond the scope of the proposal submitted by the Commission. He also declared that since the Commission was due to present a report on the matter in a few months’ time, it would submit proposals to this effect. In January, the Commission presented a report on the operation of the COM in fruit and vegetables but, regrettably, did not follow this up with proposals. The report in question is essentially descriptive. It contains some very interesting information, which broadly concurs with the information contained in our report of October last year. The difference between the two reports lies in the fact that the Commission’s report is merely descriptive whereas Parliament’s report provided assessments and proposals. There are, therefore, two problems. The first is the procedure to be followed once the Commission’s report has been presented and the second is the method to be decided on to resolve the problems affecting the sector as quickly as possible. As regards the procedure, the problem lies in the fact that the Commission’s report contains no analysis or assessment. The Commission reveals that only 40% of production is marketed through producers’ organisations, but makes no assessment of whether this is too much or too little. It makes no analysis of the effects of this factor on the effectiveness of the COM and nor does it assess the advisability of making proposals. There is no sense in Parliament presenting a report on supposedly well-founded statistical data. What is needed is a report that discusses assessments and proposals, but the Commission’s report does not provide for this and furthermore, the European Parliament put these forward in October last year. The fruit and vegetable sector has for some time been afflicted by a series of problems which need to be resolved as rapidly as possible: the COM in fruit and vegetables has a budget that does not reflect its importance as an economic activity; the regulations prevent the appropriations available to the COM in fruit and vegetables being used effectively and producers’ incomes are suffering the effects of upheavals in the market resulting from the gradual deterioration of Community preference and the continual increase in production costs. We therefore need to assess and compensate for the effects of trade agreements being signed with third countries and we need to encourage the concentration of supply via producer organisations. All of these issues, and some others – such as those concerning problems of operational programmes and funds – already feature in the report Parliament adopted last October and the urgent need to resolve these problems requires the Commission to present proposals within the meaning defined in the report that we adopted. Now, in order to respond to the legitimate concerns of the Community’s fruit and vegetable producers, Parliament must call on the Commission to present proposals, which we shall comment on once they have been made. I do not wish to end without making a brief mention of nuts, because my fellow Members have focussed mainly on this issue. If any matter is genuinely urgent amongst all the urgent matters of the COM in fruit and vegetables, it is to resolve the nut issue. In October, Parliament also put forward definitive proposals on this matter in order to resolve the problems. I therefore find it incredible that the Commissioner claims not to be aware of the proposals that Parliament has made repeatedly on this subject. We must, as a matter of priority, provide a definitive solution for this sector and until the Commission matches the proposals already presented by Parliament, we must extend the measures currently in force.

Political group: GUE-NGL