Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I congratulate Mr Garot on his excellent report; much of what has already been said I do not need to repeat. Discussion of farmers’ incomes is long overdue; the fact is that they are far too low. The various underlying causes I will illustrate by reference to the example of Germany. One of the most important is that farmers are still unable to command on the market the prices that they need for their products and which would be quite justified. The causes of this state of affairs can be traced back to the fierce competition between the six or seven food concerns that dominate the market, a turf war fought out to the detriment of farmers. These concerns see farmers as nothing more than suppliers of cheap raw materials. I might add that the same is true of many dairies. To that can be added the fact that consumers, that is, most people, do not know anything about this and, indeed to some extent, do not want to. The fact is that high-quality food, for example that produced in accordance with high standards of protection for the environment and for animals, comes at a price; it is not to be had for free. Even the Deutscher Bauernverband, the German Farmers’ Union, which represents the interests of most German farmers, has had its hand in this, for – in my opinion – it has for far too long not merely blocked or delayed important reforms, but has positively prevented some of them. Its unending lamentations, which have been its stock-in-trade for decades, about how badly-off farmers have now virtually made the public deaf to farmers’ legitimate demands and needs. Let me add that many farmers tell me these things at events once the Verband’s functionaries have gone. The reforms adopted over the past year are thus all the more important to farmers; they should have been adopted years ago. The decoupling of payments from production was long overdue. Here, in this House, we have done our bit; it is now for the Member States to properly implement these conclusions and to do away once and for all with the unfair treatment of different types of farming, such as, for example, dairy cattle and arable farming. Let me quote you some figures. Up to now, 20% of the farms with 59% of the land and 25% of the jobs have been getting 73% of the direct grants, and, let it be noted, relatively little was to be seen or heard of those who are now so loudly indignant about the injustice that is allegedly going to result from the agricultural reform. We Social Democrats support compensatory payments for farmers because they have to be rewarded appropriately for the services that they perform in the general interest within a multifunctional system and which the prices paid do not cover. This must, however, be done in accordance with transparent, open, and comprehensible rules. None of us can evade the question of what high-quality foodstuffs are actually worth to us. For the engine in our cars we buy only the best and most expensive petrol, but when it comes to the body, which is our own engine, without which we cannot exist and which is meant to work for at least 100 years without spluttering, most of us are completely indifferent to what we put into it. All that matters is that there should be a lot of it and that it should be cheap. That is not on. Even though this may be wishful thinking at present, we do believe that it would be for the best if farmers were to be able to have a good living from the prices paid for their produce. That is what we Social Democrats are working for. I thank you.

Political group: PSE