Activities of James NICHOLSON related to 2015/2074(BUD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the mandate for the trilogue on the 2016 draft budget
Amendments (7)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Points out that agriculture and rural development deliver many key EU objectives and are an important part of the overall EU budget for 2016; calls therefore for the agriculture budget to remain at leastgiven that the agriculture budget as a proportion of the overall budget has decreased over time, calls for the agriculture budget to be robustly defended and at the very least remain at its current level;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Demands that additional finance should be allocated to the milk sector, alleviating any potential impact from the abolition of the quota system; further insists that some specific agricultural sub-sectors are in need of greater funding, such as bee keepingsome specific agricultural sub-sectors, such as the milk sector, in order to mitigate the impact of on-going price volatility within the sector, the abolition of the quota system and the Russian embargo; highlights the importance of schemes for milk and fruit in schools, proposes a small increase in appropriations for these programmes in line with the agriculture committee's vote;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for sufficient funds to be made available in order to implement all elements of the CAP reform, including as regards greening, biodiversity and rural development programmes; stresses that the simplification of the CAP and a reduction in the administrative burden imposed on farmers and national authorities is urgently needed in order to ensure that the agriculture budget is spent effectively on achieving its objectives;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Notes that significant funds have been removed from the dairy sector in the last quota year as a result of the implementation of the superlevy, and therefore recommends that this revenue remain within the agriculture budget to strengthen the competitiveness of the dairy sector;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to monitor the significant price volatility of agricultural products, and improve the real-time analysis of sector markets, for instance, by strengthening the Milk Market Observatory in the dairy sector; stresses that price volatility continues to be an on-going challenge for some sectors and one which occurs more frequently in a more globalised market and has adverse effects on farmers' incomes, and urges the Commission and Member States to react promptly and effectively when needed;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. demands that funds earmarked for research in the agri-food sector, in particular from the Horizon2020 budget, remain fully available as such in order to stimulate innovation in the agricultural sector;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights the continuing imbalances in the food supply chain, in which the position of primary producers is considerably weaker than that of other actors; urges the Commission to incentivise the creation of Producer Organisations, particularly in the dairy sector, as one of several means to tackle unfair trading practices; to take action to improve the transparency of prices and margins in the food supply chain; highlights the value of a pilot project in this area.