14 Amendments of Catherine GRÈZE related to 2011/2051(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a (new) Whereas 40% of the global greenhouse gases are emitted in the agriculture sector; whereas agriculture is the main source of methane and nitrous oxide, and both of these greenhouse gases have a much larger warming potential than carbon dioxide; and whereas climate change affects especially poor people in developing countries and diminish farming opportunities;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b (new) Whereas liberalisation of trade in agriculture has opened the developing countries' doors to low-price imports from Europe, Asia and United States, thereby subjecting locally produced foodstuff to unbearable competition; and whereas these surges of low-priced imports impoverish the domestic farmers and agricultural workers considerably;
Amendment 3 #
A c new Whereas rural inhabitant in developing countries account for between 70% and 80% of the undernourished; and whereas eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is dependent on improving the living conditions of farmers and agricultural workers in developing countries;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
A d (new) Whereas the report by the UN special rapporteur for the right to food "Agroecolgy and the Right to Food” shows that agroecology can double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty; recognizes that long term productivity and food security, especially resilience of agricultural systems to climatic disturbances, depends on due care for natural resources, particularly soil, water use and biodiversity;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
A e (new) Whereas higher agricultural productivity in Europe goes hand in hand with the use of more soil, feed etc. from developing countries; whereas about 80% of Europe's demand for protein feed crops is met by imports, thereby accounting for an area of 20 million hectares of land use outside Europe; whereas duty-free imports of protein crops and oilseeds in Europe has contributed to deforestation, displacement of communities, loss of biodiversity and increasing food insecurity in South America;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes the widespread concern on the decreasing but accumulatived negative impacts of the CAP on developing countries; regrets that the Commission communication on the CAP towards 2020 does not mention such impacts; asks the Commission to launch a thorough evaluation of the CAP and its impact on developing countries, and calls for the new CAP to include the principle of "‘do no harm"’ to developing countries as a core objective; more broadly, urges the Commission to ensure that CAP legislative proposals respond to the objective of Policy Coherence for Development, as prescribed in article 208 in the Lisbon Treaty;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a (new) Calls for the EU to ensure consistency between the CAP and its development and trade policies; in particular underlines the need for safeguard clauses in trade agreements and the right for developing countries to protect their agricultural markets;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (-new)
Paragraph 1 b (-new)
1 b (new) Highlights that European export subsidies seriously hampered the agricultural development of poor countries by generating unfair competition with their local agriculture, especially in case of absence of effective import protection in the importing country or region (e.g. customs barriers, import quotas, subsidies for local producers, etc.); notes equally that EU agricultural export subsidies has contributed to import surges, and therefore, has made a host of developing countries more dependent on imports, thereby jeopardizing the self- supply of food in these countries and the ability of those populations to feed themselves;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls for the post-2013 CAP to eliminate all export subsidies and to decouple direct payments from production, so as to create a level playing field between EU and developing countries' agricultural products; asks the Commission to finance transitional schemes for crops affected by this decoupling, aimed at promoting organic and sustainable farming practice; points out however that banning export subsidies leave unchanged economic distortions resulting from other direct or indirect subsidies, which enable the EU agricultural sector to export agricultural commodities below their average production costs; calls on the EU to support developing countries' demands to protect their food production and to protect their population from the potentially destructive effects of cheap imports;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a (new) Recommends, in line with the conclusions of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, that the EU develops a new food and agriculture policy that supports organic farming and other agro-ecological practises; in particular, calls also on the Commission to reform the CAP by linking direct payments to social and environmental conditions;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that food is not merely a commodity buand that access to food is foremost a universal human right; a universal human right; underlines in this context that Europe's responsibility towards global food security is primarily an issue of allowing and supporting developing countries to increase and diversify their own production to become more food secure and to meet demands on their local markets, rather than a matter of raising its agricultural exports to developing countries;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a (new) Expresses its concern that the EU, through its promotion of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) and other bilateral free trade agreements is trying to force a food liberalisation agenda on developing countries and open up agricultural markets; recalls that, while unprotected imports of animal feedstuffs has resulted in high dependency of the EU on animal protein feed sector, food security in Europe was, in contrast, achieved through protection of the agricultural markets; hence, urges the EU to refrain from forcing developing countries to open up their agricultural market;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b (new) Notes with concern that EU dependence on imported animal feed, particularly soy, has contributed to the growing demand for land abroad, leading to deforestation, the displacement of communities and an expansion of genetically modified soy in South America; accordingly, calls on the Commission to make the reduction of dependency of imported protein feed, i.e. through development and expansion of sustainable protein crops in the EU, one of its main priority;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. THighlights that price fluctuations of agricultural commodities hit poor countries the hardest; takes the view that, in the context of tackling international speculation in agricultural commodity prices, the new CAP should establish appropriate mechanisms and rules to govern trade in agricultural commodity derivatives and enhance transparency; believes that the EU should lead by example, by establishing within its territory local auctioning agricultural markets and local distribution systems, which increase the bargaining power of smallholders in the food supply chain;