Závěrečný projev komisařky Mariann Fischer Boel na konferenci k politice kvality
Text projevu je k dispozici pouze v anglickém jazyce.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I think it's safe to say that we've worked hard and I've heard that you expressed some clear views.
First of all I would like to thank all of you here for taking part in this conference. And of course, particular thanks go to all chairpersons and speakers, and especially the Czech presidency.
To be specific, it is clear that you want PDOs and PGIs to remain our flagship quality schemes, not be confused with trademarks.
I have heard that you are very much attached to the traditional specialities. I have my doubts but we will see how we can preserve the advantages of the scheme while cutting away useless ballast.
For organic farming, I am looking forward to having a new European logo and therefore a European "identity" for organic farming. I believe a new logo will move us much closer to having a true single market in organic products. This will be good news for consumers and producers.
You also are interested in maintaining marketing standards. You really are a conservative lot! We really need to get things moving. We need to find the right balance between simplification and the need to maintain marketing standards. I really do not think Brussels is the best able to decide on this. I do think things have to move and I won't give up on this. Simplification is an important goal of the Commission, and – I think – a very necessary one.
Quality schemes often involve a number of players in the food supply chain, and it's right that they should. But there's a danger that farmers will be pushed to the margins in some cases. My aim is to make sure that farmers benefit from as many schemes as possible – that they can get their message across to the final consumer and so use the labelling schemes to get a reward for their hard work.
In the end quality policy is about communicating to the consumers. My feeling is that we can achieve this without intervening in a "heavy-handed" way – though I'm still open to comments on this issue. The timeline will be that we will present a communication at the end of May. But this is not the end of the story. There are still possibilities to develop good ideas while the Communication is being discussed in the Council and the European Parliament.
Once again, a big thank-you to everyone, and I look forward to hearing your reactions to our Communication when we adopt it in May!
Datum aktualizace: 16.8.2011 15:41
