Press release — Prague, January 21st 2009, PR CZ PRES - Traditional ‘grilling’ of President of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council after presentation of the Presidency programme in the AGRI Committee of the EP was defined by debate on future form of Common Agricultural Policy, potential co-financing by Member States, perspectives on individual pillars and joint decision-making of the Council and the Parliament.
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Prague, 21 January 2009
Gandalovic successfully passed ‘grilling’ in the European Parliament
Traditional ‘grilling’ of President of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council after presentation of the Presidency programme in the AGRI Committee of the EP was defined by debate on future form of Common Agricultural Policy, potential co-financing by Member States, perspectives on individual pillars and joint decision-making of the Council and the Parliament.
‘If we wish to have a Common Agricultural Policy, increasing the proportion of cofinancing is not a good approach,’ said Gandalovic. ‘As a result, the policy would no longer be common; it would become a race of state budgets.’
Gandalovic answered a question regarding potential cancellation of one of the pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in relation to the strengthening of the significance and transfer of money to the currently second pillar in the following way: ‘We need both pillars but we need to make an effort to balance the functions. Payments in the second pillar are more accurate in expressing the non-production functions of agriculture and rural development.’
Gandalovic mentioned his original profession of mathematician in a debate addressing the question whether the effort to reduce the budget should precede or follow the reform of CAP. In his opinion, this type of education is not unsuitable for the discussion of the future form of CAP. ‘We wish to create a unified, functional and comprehensible formula. The money volume will be later added to this formula,’ stated the minister.
Members of the European Parliament were also interested in the future of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic and the opinion of the Minister on joint decision-making of the Council and the European Parliament.
President of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development Neil Parish supported the idea of balancing the payments and conditions of the Member States. He further expressed his belief that the Czech Presidency, represented by Gandalovic, is well prepared to meet the ambitious obligations of its programme.
The Committee on Fisheries of the European Parliament witnessed a statement that the Czech Presidency, representing a landlocked country, is better suited for the function of mediator. An appeal to minister Gandalovic directed him to call on the European Commission to propose a strategy for aquaculture soon. In consideration of the fact that the Czech Republic is a landlocked country with an abundant tradition for fish farming, this is also a priority area of the Czech Presidency.
Tereza Dvorácková
Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture
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