Korakas (GUE/NGL), in writing. – (EL) The proposals in the Lavarra report make no reference whatsoever to the negative changes being promoted with the mid-term review or to olive oil because, as it says, it considers it a fait accompli, in which case all that remains is to regulate certain aspects of the olive oil market. That is why all his amendments, which are positive in almost their entirety (such as the abolition of the practice of mixing olive oil with other fatty substances) are limited to that.

We radically disagree with the logic of considering the mid-term review for olive oil as a foregone conclusion and with the substance of the review, in other words with the uncoupling of a significant proportion of subsidies from production, freezing olive production at the levels of 1 May 1998, reducing Community appropriations for olive oil and so on.

The Commission proposal should hardly even constitute the basis for debate in the European Parliament and should be rejected in its entirety, because it creates a situation which is far worse than the current situation and does not under any circumstances satisfy olive producers.

We voted against the report, despite its individual positive points, because it accepts the mid-term review for olive oil as a foregoing conclusion. The Communist Party of Greece calls on olive producers to fight so that the review is not implemented in practice, so that ceilings on olive production are abolished and so that subsidies are paid on actual production and to put a stop to the mockery and derision of olive producers.