Mr President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I can assure Mr Martinez that I am very proud of Austrian agricultural policy and of what has been achieved in Austrian agriculture and by the farmers and others who live in rural areas. Let me start by thanking most warmly all the rapporteurs for the work they have done. I would also like to extend the warmest thanks to all the staff of this House and also to those of the Commission. Without them, it would not have been possible, in this short time, to agree on these compromises, which have met with overwhelming approval in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. We all know what close ties bind agriculture to rural areas and to the people who live and work in them, that rural areas are a place of relaxation for our industrialised society, and that they contribute to cultural and biological diversity. Rural development, then, must be about more than ensuring that food is produced, for the European model of agricultural policy, which is committed to extensive and multifunctional agriculture, makes great demands of us. The first pillar, which governs the organisation of markets and delivers production incentives, is closely connected with the second, which contains the policies on agricultural structures and rural development. It is therefore of fundamental importance that these two instruments should be kept in constant balance and harmony with each other, rather than being applied counter-productively. Objectives and means for rural areas can be worked out centrally, but they must take effect on a regional basis. Europe’s rural areas are very diverse and have different characteristics, advantages and also problems. This means that, in many areas, the rural development programme very much needs, as an instrument, to bear the stamp of the regions to which it applies. There is, in addition, a need for the regions to be fundamentally motivated and involved. Although the Commission proposal and the report represent two important steps in the right direction, I do believe that it would be desirable for the second pillar to be strengthened to an even more marked degree and for rural areas thus to be developed in a sustainable way. I can see no comprehensible explanation of why the redefinition of objective criteria that the report calls for is necessary; I think the definition is perfectly adequate already. Integrated rural development must not be restricted solely to agricultural structures, for the maintenance and the functioning of rural areas are dependent on a functioning infrastructure being in place. The utmost care must also be taken with the distribution of funds, as, when supporting the infrastructures of other, new, businesses, care must be taken to ensure that funds from the EAGGF are allocated only to farmers. Let me conclude by saying that extensive and sustainable agriculture is the guarantee that production will go on in every region. For example, an Austrian farmer safeguards three jobs both up- and downstream, and we know too that, as enlargement progresses, agriculture will not exhaust the EU’s budget resources; on the contrary, regional policy has need of many more of them. (Restrained applause)

Political group: PPE-DE