27 Amendments of Ángela VALLINA related to 2016/2141(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas as early asin 20103, in the 27- member EU, only 2.73.1% of farms controlled 50.62.2% of farmland in Europe, and whereas by contrast, in 20123, 8076.2% of farms had the use of only 11.2% of the agricultural land;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas land, as an increasingly scarce and non-renewable asset, should not be treated as an ordinary item of merchandise, and is furthermore doubly threatened both by the loss of agricultural land through soil sealing, urban development and infrastructure projects, changes of use and afforestation, and by the concentration of land in the hands of large-scale agricultural undertakings and investors from outside the farming sector;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the Member States, for their political decisions on land market policy, need comprehensive, up-to-date, transparent and high-quality data on price and volume movements on the land markets, as regards both ownership and renting, along with relevant social and environmental indicators concerning land administration;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas a broad distribution of assetfarms in agricultural land isand employment in agriculture are an essential founding principle of the social market economy and an important precondition for the social cohesion of a country’s economy;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas farmland areas used for smallholding farming in line with agro- ecological practices are particularly important for water and carbon management and the climate, as well as for biodiversity, the production of nutritious food and soil fertility, and are already suffering as a result of climate change and soil erosion;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas land ownership issecure, equitable and inclusive land tenure rights, including access to common goods, are the best way of ensuring a responsible relationship with the land and sustainable land management, and also fosters identification and a sense of belonging, encouraging people to remain and work in rural areas; whereas this has an impact on the socio-economic infrastructurewell- being of rural areas, and whereas the separation of ownership and possessionunequal distribution and control of land and natural resources increases the risk of a division within society, a loss in quality of work and life, and impoverishment;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas the aims of Europe’s agricultural policy ishould be: a multi- functional agriculture characterised by capital- owning family and cooperative farms, a broad distribution of assets and a diverse,a majority of small and medium-sized smallholdings and cooperative farms; guaranteed access to land for those farms; ecologically sustainable production methods; decent work and residence-based agricultural structure with traditions, legal certainty and responsibility;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas farmland prices and rents and afforestation have risen in many regions to a level which makes it economically impossible for many farms to hold on to rented land or acquire the additional land needed to keep farms viable, as there is hardly any land on the market;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas EU policies and subsidies encourage concentration phenomena, speculation and land grabbing; whereas direct area payments disproportionately benefit large farms, and the use of these funds leads to a rise in land prices, which tends to exclude small and medium-sized undertakings and young farmers from the land market and prevent new people from taking up farming;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas, particularly since the 2007 financial and economic crisis, purchases of farmland have been regarded as a safe investment and farmland has been bought up by non-agricultural investors and financial speculators, and whereas land ownership will remain a safe investment even in the event of future inflation;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls for the creation of a central land observatory tasked with recording and providing information on the level of farmland concentration in the EU, changes in land use and the market behaviour of owners and tenants, and with issuing regular reports;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission to create a legal basis in order to ensure the regular collection of data of comparable quality on rent levels and land prices, large-scale acquisitions of land, infringement of land tenure rights and price speculation in connection with all sales of farmland and farm shares by agricultural undertakings in all Member States;
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that land consolidation, with differing types of procedure in the framework ofe need for land use planning and an integrated land management system, is ans indispensable instruments for improving agricultural structure and settling land use disputesguaranteeing that priority is given to using land for food production;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Takes the view that land policy must help to ensure a socially desirable broadbroad and fair distribution of land ownership, as it has direct implications for everyone’s living and working conditions and quality of life, and notes the important social function of land ownership givenand the fact that a loss of farms and jobs will lead to the collapse of European smallholder agriculture in Europe and the demise and desertification of rural areas, and thus to structural changes that are undesirable for society as a whole;
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recommends that the Member States give farmers priority, in the purchase of farmlandaccess to land and forests, to small local food producers, to young people and people wishing to take up a related activity and to women, particularly at a time when non-farmers are increasingly interested in purchasing agricultural plots;
Amendment 238 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Takes the view that land market policy should help make it easier for young people to enter agriculture, over and above the encouragement for young farmersregardless of whether or not they take part in the programmes designed to help young farmers enter the sector enshrined in the common agricultural policy; calls, therefore, for a comprehensive approach that helps enable qualified young farmers and new entrepreneurs, women and people wishing to take up farming to take over or start farms;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to shape their land market regulation policyies in such a way as to curb the rise in farmland prices and rents; further calls for these prices to be subject to an authorisation procedure which would also apply to mergers, splits and the establishment of foundations; takes the view that there should be stricter checks on lease contracts, a requirement to report irregularities, and the possibility of penalties, since renting is often the first step to purchasing;
Amendment 270 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls for the implementation by the EU and the Member States, in the interest of developing a clear EU guiding principle for the structure of farming, of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, which has been ratified by all Member States;
Amendment 289 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Proposes a mandatory cap on the part of direct payments exceeding the upper limit of EUR 150 000, as set out in Article 11 of Regulation No 1307/2013 (the Direct Payments Regulation), as well as the compulsory reduction by at least 5% of the part of the basic payment due to the farmer which exceeds EUR 150 000per farm which takes account of the people working on the farm concerned;
Amendment 308 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Takes the viewRecommends that 30% of direct payments should be payable on the first hectare, provided that the requirements of Articles 41 and 42 of the Direct Payments Regulation are complied with;
Amendment 311 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Recommends that the EU adopt a system of direct payments linked to agricultural work units rather than hectares;
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Recommends to that end the adoption of a uniform definition throughout the EU of ‘active farmer’ which is clearly linked to the notion of work on a farm for the production of food;
Amendment 326 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Commission to monitor all policy areas to see whether they promote or counteract the concentration of agricultural land in the EU, and to establish a participatory and inclusive process, also including farming organisations, to assess the current land governance situation in the European Union based on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests adopted by the Committee on World Food Security;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Endorses the Commission’s finding that land is a finite resource which is already under much pressure as a result of climate change, soil erosion and over- exploitation, and calls for farmland to be given special protection with a view to compliance with the four fundamental European freedoms, so that the Member States can regulate the structure of property and the sale and lettasing of agricultural land in the light of social and environmental criteria;
Amendment 355 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Commission to adopt clear and binding policy guidance on land in the European Union so as to ensure that the utilised agricultural area is maintained, that priority is given to the use of land for food production, that farmland is protected, and that small and medium-sized farms have access to that farmland;
Amendment 360 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission to raise the awareness of the Member States about, and support them in combating, corruption in connection with land saletransactions;