36 Amendments of Mairead McGUINNESS related to 2016/2034(INI)
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas price volatility creates a climathigh degree of uncertainty, and puts a brake on investment, in farmingmong producers and consumers, with the former seeing their income and ability to invest and therefore the long-term viability of their activities as under threat when prices are low, whilst the ability of consumers to feed themselves and have access to basic goods might be compromised by high food prices, thereby giving rise to crisis situations;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that volatility must be accepted as a givenfarmers will be increasingly exposed to price volatility as a result of the globalisation and sophistication of agricultural markets, greater variability of supply due to climatic vagaries, increased health risks and the parlous equilibrium of food supply; considers that it must be integrated in public policy and that those operators who are most exposed must be supported in order to lessen its negative effects;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. notes that the various agricultural sectors have different degrees of exposure to price volatility and that the calibration of public policy tools or mitigation strategies of the actors in these sectors must be adapted to each production area and to the real, current and future risks faced by farmers;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that the Union’, while the European Union is scaling back its strategic support for agriculture, its competitors make very considerable and increasing sums of public money available for protecting their farmers from thagainst the adverse effects of price volatility;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Points out that decoupled direct aid under the first CAP pillar, representing close to 30% of farmers' incomes, is a vital component of income but, in isolation, is not helping to stabilise agricultural markets;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Points out that most of the risk management instruments introduced in connection with the CAP Health Check in 2008 were transferred to the second CAP pillar for the period 2014-2020 and made optional and subject to cofinancing; notes that, for the time being, they are being implemented unevenly and with limited budget funding under rural development programmes;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Notes that, in all Member States, farmers have access to very varied types of risk management instruments that have differing degrees of sophistication and differ in scope and design in order to meet what farmers are calling for and cater for the various European farming models;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Considers that any European initiative to develop risk management instruments must be in keeping with existing national models and, where appropriate, complement them;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 e (new)
Paragraph 10 e (new)
10e. Regrets the very slow rate of implementation of the CMO and the fact that there has been little progress made in creating producer organisations, their associations and inter-branch organisations, and in taking steps to introduce contractual systems in Europe;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Considers that the CAP must offer farmers a flexible and consistent framework enabling them to boost the resilience of farm sectors via the organisation and structuring of their collective action and through supply management and the introduction of a contractual system involving the various stakeholders in the supply chain;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 d (new)
Paragraph 10 d (new)
10d. Is convinced that the Commission should have flexible and productive instruments in order to prevent and manage the very high levels of market risk which farmers cannot guard against by themselves;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10c. Believes that a market-oriented CAP must facilitate transparency on agricultural markets and offer farmers and entrepreneurs the tools needed to devise their strategy for managing risks and controlling variability in the economic outturn, in the event that sectors do not have the resilience themselves to absorb an unexpected occurrence;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Notes that inter-branch organisations encourage dialogue among the various stakeholders and facilitate joint initiatives to understand markets and production better and to enhance their transparency, forecast production potential, help improve supply management and draw up standard contracts that are compatible with EU rules and regulations;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. Call on the Commission to conduct an in-depth analysis of what is holding back optimal implementation of the CMO and the measures that would enable better use to be made of tools placed at the disposal of Member States and sectoral stakeholders;
Amendment 211 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Considers that producer organisations and their associations must be facilitated and better able organisationally to involve producers who do not meet the criteria of the single CMOin regard to implementation of the CAP and enforcement of competition law;
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Welcomes therefore the adoption of European Commission Guidelines on the application of the specific rules set out in Articles 169, 170 and 171 of the CMO Regulation concerning the olive oil, beef and veal, and arable crops sectors; considers that the purpose of these Guidelines is to facilitate the organisation and taking of steps to introduce contractual systems into these sectors;
Amendment 217 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that farmers must be permitted to come together in bodies, against a background of processing and distribution stakeholders becoming increasingly concentrated at both EU and national level, farmers must be permitted to come together in producer organisations or associations thereof that carry as much clout as those of the other stakeholders in the chain with whom they negotiate;
Amendment 234 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission to facilitate the introduction of contractual systems by adapting competition law to meet the needs of the agricultural industry within the framework of the CAP’'s basic rules, so as to permit commercial cooperation at the stage when produce is first placed on the market, irrespective of the type of producer organisation involved in accordance with Article 42 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), so as to permit farmers to negotiate collectively through producer organisations of a similar size to other stakeholders in processing and distribution;
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Recommends that the tools for climate, health and economic risk management, particularly the various types of insurance andinsurance support, the income stabilisation tool and the mutual funds, be developed;
Amendment 257 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the European Commission to analyse the weak growth and the impediments to implementation of these tools, given that currently only EUR 1.7 billion (2.7 billion in co- financing), corresponding to 2% of the second-pillar budget and 0.4% of the CAP budget, is spent on these tools, with an estimated number of around 635 000 holdings covered by such schemes;
Amendment 266 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Believes that the guidance from the European Commission for the development of these tools, particularly the mutual funds and the income stabilisation tool, is particularly vague and must be made more accessible for farmers;
Amendment 282 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Considers that price volatility adversely affects the income of farmers who have made investments, and that CAP tools should be put in place to prevent the impetus for investment being lost; is detrimental to the impetus for investment and to the establishment of young farmers and that sectoral tools for risk management should be developed that are adapted to the specific features of the different European agricultural sectors; notes by way of comparison that in its Farm Bill 2014 the United States has developed specific insurance policies for different agricultural sectors, including cereals (wheat, soya, maize, cotton), livestock and dairy production, beekeeping, fish farming and horticulture;
Amendment 294 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Considers that farmers and farmers' organisations should be better informed about and trained for the management of risk in order to take ownership of these tools; calls on the European Commission to adopt an awareness-raising plan and calls on the Member States and the local authorities to strengthen these aspects in their programme of agricultural education and vocational training;
Amendment 328 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 5 a (new)
Subheading 5 a (new)
Crisis prevention and management tools
Amendment 337 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 c (new)
Paragraph 21 c (new)
21c. Notes that the Commission makes little or no use of the crisis reserve in the agricultural sector;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Notes that price volatility can also be generated at national level, and calls, therefore, on the Member States to take market volatility into account in their fiscal rules, in particular by providing for the constitution of crisis reserves outside national budgets;
Amendment 340 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Notes that the traditional CAP crisis management tools (public intervention and private storage) are no longer sufficiently effective in a globalised economy;
Amendment 342 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 e (new)
Paragraph 21 e (new)
21e. Notes that the budgetary rules which apply to the crisis reserve, in particular the annuality rule, and the discretion which the Commission enjoys when it comes to releasing funds from the reserve limit its use;
Amendment 343 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 d (new)
Paragraph 21 d (new)
21d. Points out that it called for a crisis reserve to be constituted outside the EU budget and for provision to be made for amounts to be transferred from one year to the next;
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 f (new)
Paragraph 21 f (new)
21f. Calls on the Commission to propose the introduction of revised, effective crisis prevention and management tools;
Amendment 345 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Subheading 6
Amendment 366 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Welcomes the Commission's decision to set up a meat market observatory along the lines of the European Milk Market Observatory, and points out that in the context of the last CAP reform Parliament had called for a price and margin observatory covering the agricultural sector as a whole to be established;
Amendment 368 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Recommends thatCalls on the Commission to assess the advisability of setting up European agricultural price and market observatories be established for the various sectors of the industry, to provide ongoing, segment-by- segment analysis of agricultural markets, with the involvement of economic stakeholders, and to make relevant data and forecasts available at regular intervalfor other agricultural sectors, such as the plant-based sectors;
Amendment 375 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25a. Draws attention to the important role which observatories of this kind can play in disseminating and analysing market data, and urges the Commission to regard the observatories as tools which can be used to manage agricultural markets, and not only as a means of monitoring disruptions to markets;
Amendment 386 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 b (new)
Paragraph 25 b (new)
25b. Urges the Commission to take the steps needed to ensure that these observatories can, on the one hand, provide accurate data in real time on market and price trends, production costs, consumption, stock levels, prices and imports and exports of agricultural foodstuffs at European level, and, on the other, issue early warnings ahead of crises and recommendations to the Commission, the Member States and economic actors based on up-to-the- minute analyses of agricultural markets by segment;