Willem Schuth (ALDE), draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. – (DE) Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by congratulating Mr Langen on his balanced report. As draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Agriculture on this report, I am pleased to be able to highlight a few points briefly.

Bioenergy will be of central importance in the energy mix of the future. In many areas it can and will make an important contribution to the security of energy supply and to reducing our dependence on foreign imports, to climate protection and to employment and the economy in Europe’s rural areas.

The Committee on Agriculture considers the introduction of an EU certification system to be particularly important. On the one hand, we must avoid additional administrative burdens for European producers by drawing on existing rules such as cross compliance. At the same time, biofuels imported from third countries should also be certified according to strict ecological criteria to ensure a positive environmental balance.

In promoting biofuels, priority should not be given to research into second-generation biofuels when allocating the available resources. There is still a considerable need for research into first-generation fuels.