New money for hard pressed dairy farmers (Paisley Liberal Democrats)

Paisley Liberal Democrats <smcdonald21@ntlworld.com>

New money for hard pressed dairy farmers

October 20, 2009 12:00 AM
By George Lyon MEP in the European Parliament
Originally published by George Lyon - Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland

Mr President, could I too thank the Commissioner for coming here tonight to further explain the powers she seeks. Commissioner, could I first of all thank you for responding positively to the resolution agreed with this House on 27 September. I welcome the moves you have taken to try and stabilise what is a very serious situation for dairy farmers. I also welcome the EUR 280 million that you have announced for restructuring.

In terms of the first part of your proposal, the question we all have to ask today is: why are we being asked to approve urgency measures at this late stage, and will they assist market recovery? Because clearly, as you said in your speech, the green shoots of recovery are already starting to show. I am not convinced that the proposed quota changes will make a great deal of difference but, as they are voluntary on Member States, this group will certainly not oppose them being granted.

Turning to the proposal on widening the scope of Article 186 to include milk and milk products, in my experience, ministers - or in this case commissioners - usually come to parliaments asking for powers so they can take action to solve a problem. Tonight we seem to be being asked to grant the powers to the Commission without first being told exactly what action they will be used to address.

As I understand from your contribution early on, you did mention that you needed this extra power as a legal basis to pay out the EUR 280 million. I would be grateful if you could clarify whether that is the case. Is that why you require the powers? Because the great concern we all have is that we may well be handing over a blank cheque to the Commission.

Commissioner, you said you had been financially plucked of your last feather, so, if you have other ideas for action you might take, clearly there is not much financial scope to do anything at all significant. Our group will only grant these powers if they are time limited and they are constrained to extreme circumstances.