Text tabled : A7-0266/2011

  Alyn Smith (Verts/ALE), in writing. – Our group has submitted an amendment to the trialogue text – we are re-submitting the Agriculture Committee’s Amendment 87 on Article 42, which allows the Member States to establish rules allowing producer groups to adjust supply to demand of PGI and PDO products where such groups formally make a request. This is in no way a criticism of the excellent work done by the rapporteur, but reflects the political concerns our group has with the compromise. First, because we believe that volatility in the markets, seen most dramatically in the milk markets, has to be dealt with through a certain degree of supply management, to ensure that supply and demand do not go out of sync. Primarily, this shows our deep disapproval of the attitude of Council during trialogue negotiations. Amendment 87 was a key demand of the European Parliament, yet Council refused to even negotiate on the issue. This is unacceptable, especially under codecision, and represents a worryingly uncooperative attitude. The ‘political statement’ we in the Committee on Agriculture received, promising to discuss supply management under CAP reform, lacks legal force. This does not bode well for successful negotiations on CAP reform, particularly for supply management.