[autom.vertaling] Franz Fischler: "Wij hebben realisme en pragmatisme voor de Finse besprekingen van de landbouwbedrijfhulp" nodig (en)
Visiting South Ostrobothnia/Finland today, Franz Fischler, EU Agriculture Commissioner, stressed his willingness to find a workable solution on the question of extending Finnish agricultural state aids (Article 141). "I am very familiar with Finnish agriculture. I have been in Finland many times, I maintain an excellent relationship with the Finnish authorities and the farming sector and in my home country Austria, many farmers have to work under similar, difficult conditions. This is why I have great sympathy for the concerns of Finnish farmers. My philosophy has always been to look at farming not only from a pure efficiency angle, but also from the point of view of what farming does to maintain our environment, our landscape, our culture and traditions", he said. He urged Finnish farmers to look at the whole picture. "The talks on Article 141 are not about eliminating farm subsidies. These aids come on top of the substantial subsidies Finnish farmers receive from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). 141 is a transitional measure, agreed as part of Finland's EU accession package to help your farmers integrate into the CAP. Any prolongation of this support would therefore have to encourage farmers to invest, modernise and adapt to the new challenges, and not the opposite. Consequently, any solution has to be targeted, time limited and degressive", Mr Fischler explained.
"We need pragmatism and realism about what the Commission can possibly do. We are ready to address justified concerns. The Commission has already moved. We have already put concrete and very reasonable offers on the table to help these talks progress. Now it is up to Finland to show flexibility to find a workable solution we can jointly defend in Europe. My door is wide open to talk business. I sincerely hope that we get an acceptable deal this month", Mr Fischler continued.
Finland negotiated a very successful hand in the farm policy reform decided in June 2003. Apart from maintaining the current level of farm subsidies from Brussels, Finland won additional support in two key areas: drying aid and less favoured areas. They can increase the maximum aid per hectare under the less favoured area (LFA) scheme from € 200 to € 250.
"Depending on how Finland will use this extra leeway, an additional € 48 million less favoured area support can be made available for farmers in the South of Finland. This important increase in support cannot be ignored in the 141 talks. I would also urge Finland to make full use of other possibilities to support farmers in the South of Finland, which have not been fully exploited yet. Under the normal EU state aid rules, Finland could have granted at least € 34 million more investment aid in 2002 alone for the farmers in the South. Finland could also substantially increase the current aid intensity of at times as little as 25% for environmental investments, and 20% for animal welfare and hygiene to 75%", he said.
Mr Fischler underlined that by de-linking the bulk of the subsidies from production, the new, reformed CAP would make life simpler and less time-consuming for farmers as well as more sustainable, more market oriented and more in line with consumer's concerns. "However, one thing is absolutely clear: farming must not disappear in less favoured areas, it must not disappear in certain Finnish regions! This is why we have foreseen that certain elements of support can remain tied to production where there is a risk of land abandonment. And, in future, Finland will also receive more money to support new quality and environmental measures, help farmers to meet the new standards, and improve investment aid for young farmers", Commissioner Fischler concluded.
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