Parlement debatteert over hulp voor allerarmsten (en)
The European Parliament discussed food aid for the poorest citizens at a plenary session in Strasburg yesterday.
Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki sharply criticised the so-called 'blocking group' of Member States. Sawicki said:
‘I hope the debate will let us cut through the Gordian knot tied on 28 November 2008. That is when the blocking minority was established. Since then we've had six presidencies and each one - beginning with the French Presidency - passed over this tricky problem, like a hot potato, to the next one. Let me make this crystal clear: the Polish Presidency does not intend to leave it to our successors. We will make every effort to solve the problem in the near future.
As a politician, I am embarrassed to point out that the blocking group is composed of countries that in the past have extensively availed themselves of market intervention instruments and when the reserves were high had no qualms about distributing food to the poor. Today, when the intervention reserves are no longer in place, they turn the issue into an artificial legal problem. But the Commissioner has made it clear: this is not a legal or financial problem - it is a political problem. It was here, earlier today, that you adopted the 'six-pack' to bail out the biggest banks. Aren't the six governments ashamed thqat there has been no decision to allocate modest funds for 18 million people?
I am glad that the debate is public and there is no burying of heads in the sand. A week ago, I asked for a public debate at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels so that European citizens could get a good idea of who was against the programme and why. Now, Mister President, I am confident that this debate will again prick the conscience of the six blocking governments.’
Reviewing the progress of work on the programme dossier, Sawicki underlined that in 2010 the European Parliament had endorsed the report of MEP Czeslaw Siekierski and last July it appealed for a solution that would allow continuation of the programme.
Some eighteen million people currently receive EU food aid. They include the jobless and homeless, immigrants, senior citizens and other disadvantaged people, but also large families and single parents. Over 80 million people in the EU are threatened by poverty, including 20 million children. For over twenty years the food aid programme has contributed both to the attainment of important CAP goals, the building of civil societies and to social advancement in general. Millions of EU citizens and charitable organisations are awaiting favorable news from Strasburg and Brussels.
The present programme allows the transfer of food from intervention reserves to selected organisations that subsequently distribute it among the neediest citizens. In recent years, the Common Agricultural Policy has seen fundamental change. Intervention purchases as a market regulation instrument have been completely abandoned in the case of some produce, or significantly reduced. As a result, the food aid programme has had to rely increasingly on market purchases of food. Even though the programme is still operational, the resources allocated for its maintenance next year have been radically cut. It is feared that the money might be reduced further or completely dry up in 2013.
The Polish Presidency is seeking a compromise that would allow full continuation of the programme. The majority of Member States are in favour, though there also exists a blocking minority, which has advanced diverse arguments to justify their positions. Most insist that food aid is part of social policy for which the respective Member States are responsible, so the Union should not use the EU budget to help the poor. However, the European Commission believes there are no budgetary or legal reasons to prevent continuation of the programme. Five hundred million euros has been set aside in the EU budget for food aid, which means that the implementation of the programme costs each citizen just one euro a year.
Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has repeatedly explained that the ruling of the European Court of Justice of 13th April 2010 is not an obstacle to the adoption of an appropriate political decision. In order to change the challenged provisions, the Commission submitted a redrafted version five months later. Adoption in its present or slightly modified form would solve the problem of the legality of market purchases of food. Thus, everything now depends on the Council and Parliament. According to the Polish minister, opponents of the programme have no valid legal or technical grounds for their position. Sawicki emphasised that instead of being ashamed of poverty, the EU should work to reduce it.
Sawicki also expressed regret that not a single MEP representing the social democratic faction (SLD in Poland) or the conservative fraction (PiS in Poland) was present during the European Parliament session devoted to the crucial subject of aid for the neediest.