Fiebiger (GUE/NGL). – (DE) Mr President, this own-initiative report on agriculture and agricultural research has my full support. I too take the view that the right approach has been adopted by addressing future-oriented issues on the basis of an analysis which preceded this own-initiative report. I hope, of course, as previous speakers have already said, that the Commission will draw the right conclusions, for the CAP reform in particular has brought about a paradigm shift in European agriculture and I hope that scientific monitoring will be effective here in future too.

I think it is right, and would like to reiterate here, that the budget for the next framework programme has been set on the basis of proposed projects. I am unsure how the 2% is arrived at, but I think it probably conceals projects as well. In the settlement of the current programme, it will be very interesting to see exactly what has happened.

Agricultural research is generally multiannual, and I have been told about projects undertaken within this multiannual research framework that have never entered their final phase due to budget cutbacks. The Member States are also very keen on cutting research funding. Yet any research that does not produce results is a waste of resources. In the previous debate, complex issues relating to more intensive research into income and income generation options were discussed in more detail. It will be very interesting to see how this will look in future, who will be dealing with it, and in which areas, under which conditions and with which assumptions. I too agree that the complex research areas of food and food safety must be addressed in particular. Everything else, however, has been set out so comprehensively in the report that it requires no further comment from me.