XL - Eiropas Parlaments - Europa

84 16-02-2011
rapporteurs Alain Lamassoure, Zita Gurmai, Diana Wallis and Gerald Häfner, and all the other Members who participated
in this extremely important work.
This is a demonstration of the excellent cooperation and understanding not only between the European institutions, but
also among the different political families or groups. I can only express my hope that this cooperation and this
understanding will have set a model for the future, both for the institutions and for the political groups.
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PRESIDENZA DELL'ON. ROBERTA ANGELILLI
Vicepresidente
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10 - Approvazione del processo verbale della seduta precedente: vedasi processo verbale
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11 - Rialzo dei prezzi degli alimenti (discussione)
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Presidente. − L'ordine del giorno reca le dichiarazioni del Consiglio e della Commissione sul rialzo dei prezzi degli
alimenti.
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János Martonyi, President-in-Office of the Council. − Madam President, thank you for inviting the Hungarian Presidency
to participate in this debate on rising food prices.
For a second time in three years, the issue is on the agenda. Once again, rising food prices are causing social unrest and
political instability in several countries. Families in the poorest regions of the world are in difficulty. Moreover, the Food
and Agriculture Organisation tells us that the outlook is not good, with prices set to rise further this year as a result of
adverse climatic conditions. This is a pressing issue. It was discussed between Agriculture Ministers and WTO Director-
General Lamy in Berlin on 22 January 2011, and once again in the Agriculture Council on 24 January this year.
The reasons for this latest rise in prices are complex and are a mixture of structural and temporary factors. On the demand
side, we have more people to feed than ever before. On the supply side, droughts and floods have played their part in
wrecking harvests, input costs have risen and this has all been compounded by financial speculation in the commodity
markets.
So what can the European Union do to address this problem? We need to get our internal policies right, we need to
improve global governance in this area and we need to make a real contribution to the most vulnerable. Now is not the
time for complacency, but we did make some important progress in all three aspects as a result of the last food prices
crisis. The Council, along with Parliament, is engaged in an intensive debate on the future development of the common
agricultural policy. This is highly relevant with regard to global food security. Recent Council debates put food security at
the centre of the discussion, asking the question how best to ensure that agricultural production in the EU will be both
economically viable and environmentally sustainable in the future.
Let me also say that we have read with great interest Parliament’s resolution on the recognition of agriculture as a strategic
sector in the context of food security, based on the report by the honourable Member, Daciana Sârbu. There are ongoing
discussions in the Council concerning the Commission’s Communication of 18 November 2010 on the future of the CAP,
and the Hungarian Presidency plans to adopt Council conclusions at the Council meeting of 17 March.
We hope that the discussions concerning the legislative proposals scheduled to come out in the second semester of 2011
will lead to concrete progress. We have made important progress towards a more coordinated and long-term international
response to world food security. We are a long way from reaching the Millennium Development Goal to halve the world’s
hungry people by 2015. Hunger and food insecurity remain a reality for a billion people, but one of the UN’s recent
achievements, following much work by the EU, has been the creation of the global partnership for agriculture, food
security and nutrition. This is being implemented by the revitalised Committee on World Food Security in the FAO.
The EU has also been spearheading the renewal and modernisation of the Food Aid Convention in order to better
contribute to world food security and to improve the ability of the international community to deliver food assistance to the
most vulnerable populations. This is the way forward in order to enhance global governance in this area.
From a food security perspective, I would like to remind you of the Commission’s Communication on humanitarian food
assistance, adopted at the end of March 2010, and the subsequent Council Conclusions in mid-May 2010, thus outlining a
new policy framework for EU humanitarian action to strengthen efforts to tackle food insecurity in humanitarian crises.
The Commission’s Communication on assisting developing countries in addressing food security challenges, also adopted