European Parliament resolution on the drought in Portugal
Date: 2005-04-14
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: EU financing, Portugal, State aid, agricultural insurance, agricultural situation, aid to agriculture, climate change, drought, farmers' income, intervention stock

9.2.2006

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Official Journal of the European Union

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Thursday 14 April 2005

H.

concerned about the absence in Italy of a law on the right to asylum,

I.

having regard to the demand by the European Court of Human Rights to Italy of 6 April 2005 to
provide information on the situation in Lampedusa, following Application No 11593/05 filed by a
group of expelled migrants,

1.
Calls on the Italian authorities and on all Member States to refrain from collective expulsions of
asylum seekers and ‘irregular migrants’ to Libya as well as to other countries and to guarantee that requests
for asylum are examined individually and the principle of ‘non-refoulement’ adhered to;

2.
Takes the view that the collective expulsions of migrants by Italy to Libya, including those of 17 March
2005, constitute a violation of the principle of ‘non-refoulement’ and that the Italian authorities have failed
to meet their international obligations by not ensuring that the lives of the people expelled by them are not
threatened in their countries of origin;

Calls on the Italian authorities to grant the UNHCR free access to the Lampedusa detention centre and

3.
the people held there, who might be in need of international protection;

4.
Calls on the Commission, as the guardian of the Treaties, to ensure that the right of asylum is
respected in the European Union in accordance with Article 6 of the EU Treaty and Article 63 of the EC
Treaty, to put a stop to the collective expulsions and to insist that Italy and the other Member States comply
with their obligations under EU law;

5.
Recalls the need for a Community immigration and asylum policy based on an opening up of legal
immigration channels and on the definition of a common standard of protection of the fundamental rights
of immigrants and asylum seekers throughout the European Union, as established by the 1999 Tampere
European Council and confirmed by the Hague Programme;

6.
Reiterates its deep reservations about the lowest common denominator approach in the proposal for a
Council Directive on asylum procedures (COM(2002)0326) and calls on Member States to ensure a prompt
transposition of Directive 2004/83/EC (1) on minimum standards for the qualification and status of refugees;

7.
Calls on the Commission to conduct a transparent dialogue on this subject, that includes making
publicly available the outcome of its technical mission to Libya in November and December 2004 on illegal
immigration;

Calls on Libya to allow access to international observers, to call a halt to the expulsion and arbitrary
8.
arrest of migrants, to ratify the Geneva Convention on Refugees and to recognise the mandate of the
UNHCR, and demands furthermore that any readmission agreement with Libya is made public;

9.
Calls for a delegation of members of the relevant committees to be sent to the Lampedusa refugee
centre and to Libya to assess the magnitude of the problem and to verify the legitimacy of the actions of the
Italian and Libyan authorities;

10.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments
and parliaments of the Member States, the Government of Libya and the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Refugees.

(1) OJ L 304, 30.9.2004, p. 12.

P6_TA(2005)0139

Drought in Portugal

European Parliament resolution on the drought in Portugal

The European Parliament,

— having regard to Article 2 and Article 6 of the EC Treaty, pursuant to which environmental protection
requirements must be integrated into the Community's policies for various sectors with the objective
of environmentally sustainable economic development,

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— having regard to Article 174 of the EC Treaty,

— having regard to the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) of December 1997 and the EC's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on 4 March 2002,

— having regard to the Commission report on Climate Change and the European Water Dimension,

— having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas southern Europe, and particularly the Iberian peninsula, has suffered from many severe

droughts in the last few years,

B.

C.

whereas the absence of precipitation in Portugal between 1 October 2004 and the end of March
2005, with rainfall less than 50 % of the average between 1961 and 1990, has been causing extremely
low levels of ground water, less than 20 % in some southern areas of the country,

whereas on 15 March 2005 almost 88 % of mainland Portugal was experiencing severe or even
extreme drought and whereas a few days of light rainfall have not been sufficient to alter the situation
to an adequate extent,

D. whereas the effects of the water shortage are being felt, with serious socio-economic repercussions, in
agriculture, in livestock rearing, in forestry — with very slight or non-existent development of plant
growth, in particular for cereals, forage crops and natural meadows, jeopardising harvests of straw and
cereals and causing an enormous shortage of animal feed, the stocks of which are exhausted —
in human consumption, in the environment, in national health care and hence in tourism, which is
a major Portuguese industry,

E.

F.

whereas between May and the beginning of autumn there will be no new precipitation and hence it
will be necessary to continue to feed animals not only during summer but also during the coming
winter,

whereas the people who are most directly affected are those who have the lowest levels of financial
resources, and whereas the direct effects are compounded by the consequences for spring crops —
which are jeopardised by the low level of water stored in the main reservoirs — as well as by the
increased risk of summer fires, which already occur on a disastrous scale, as was particularly the case
in 2003,

G. whereas, according to research carried out into the projected impact of the drought over the next
eleven months, a loss of 34 % in net added value is estimated, and losses of as much as 40 % may
occur in the worst-hit areas of the south,

H.

considering that the persistent drought in Portugal is further evidence of the adverse effects of climate
change, and emphasising that this is another sign of the need for ambitious worldwide action to halt
climate change; whereas the EU should continue to play a leading role in this process and step up its
efforts in the key fields of the environment, energy and transport,

1.
Expresses its sympathy with the populations and sectors affected, and expresses its concern at the
situation currently affecting Portuguese farmers and livestock breeders and also the regions which are
experiencing a water shortage, the situation in the central and southern parts of the country being particu-
larly serious;

2.
Considers that Community intervention is called for, though not solely in order to provide support for
those most affected; efforts must also be made to limit the damage and prevent similar situations in the
future from having such devastating effects; in this connection and on the basis of the information already
supplied by the Portuguese authorities, urges the Commission to:

— ensure that the full amount of the agricultural aid due to farmers is paid in advance;

— facilitate, in accordance with the Community legislation and following the example of action in similar
situations in the past, the mobilisation of cereals from Community intervention stocks resulting from
the surpluses in some Member States,

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— give its backing to the veterinary tasks listed in the contingency plan to tackle the ‘blue tongue’ disease
which broke out at the same time as the drought and which, because the movement of animals was
restricted, aggravated the situation enormously;

— grant derogations from the application of a number of Community regulations, in particular auth-
orisation for grazing in set-aside zones or areas planted with cereals, which it will be impossible to
harvest because the production cycle has been affected;

— authorise the Portuguese authorities to grant the state aid required by the situation, especially to small
farmers, in particular in order to provide support for the exceptional costs incurred in feeding animals
and transporting or collecting water, or the other activities worst affected, such as potato and citrus
production;

— submit to the Council and Parliament a proposal for revision of the legal instruments with a view to
adapting the existing legislation so that it can be used to help prevent such serious effects from
recurring in any subsequent years of repeated drought in southern Europe;

3.
Alerts the Commission and Council to the immediate need for funding to be made available and
resources marshalled in order to enable action to be taken in good time to prevent a higher number of
forest fires from occurring next summer on account of the drought;

4. Welcomes the Commission's Communication on risk and crisis management in agriculture (COM
(2005)0074), and encourages the Commission and Council to take urgent action in response to it so as to
establish, as swiftly as possible, an effective Community protection system to safeguard European farmers
against risks and crises such as those resulting from the current drought in Portugal; believes it is necessary
to introduce a public form of agricultural insurance, financed from Community funds, so as to guarantee a
minimum income for farmers in cases of public disasters such as drought and fires;

5.
Believes it is necessary to obtain a heading providing for financial support to minimise the increase in
costs and reduction in agricultural production, as well as a temporary exemption from social security con-
tributions (with no loss of rights) for full-time farmers with incomes under 12 ESU, together with the
prolongation of the harvest credit, for two years and interest-free;

6.
Calls on the Council and Commission to reconsider the possibility of drawing on the Solidarity Fund,
and, in particular, of ensuring that the fund can also be used in response to situations of this kind, which
are particularly frequent in southern Europe;

7.

Calls on the Commission to take initiatives to ensure respect for the Kyoto commitments;

Urges the Commission to carry out an in-depth study into the occurrence of such phenomena in order
8.
to determine whether they are cyclical or occasional in nature, or whether they are a further indicator of
long-term climate change, and to explore options for a post-2012 agreement in the UN climate change
process, together with the development of a ong-term EU strategy, considering emission reductions by
2020 as a lead for the developed countries to follow; insists that the EU should retain its leading role in
international efforts to tackle climate change and present concrete proposals for strategic action beyond
2012;

9.
Notes with interest the recent Commission report on the global phenomenon of climate change and
its direct effect on water supply and quality and on ecosystems; welcomes in particular the proposal to
provide relevant input to EU water policymakers on the impacts on the water sector (agriculture, urban
centres, industrial and energy sectors, civil protection, spatial planning) under climate change scenarios;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Portuguese

10.
Parliament and Government, and the local authorities in the areas affected.