European Parliament
Emanuel Jardim Fernandes (PSE ),
in writing
(PT)
I wholeheartedly support the Commission’s proposal, as amended by this report, the objectives of which, bolstered by the amendments introduced, are as follows:
- to maintain Community banana production, the main agricultural activity in some producing regions, that is to say, the outermost regions, and in regions in which it plays a key socio-economic role;
- to safeguard the incomes of banana producers and to prevent the economic situation of the banana sector from deteriorating;
- to give banana-producing Member States control over the granting of aid, so that this can be done as effectively as possible, taking account of the specific priorities of these regions.
I therefore voted in favour of this report.
However, I object to the idea of continuing to make it compulsory for producers to join a recognised producers' organisation in order to receive aid – in line with the wishes of the European banana producers (members of the European Association of Banana Producers), the authorities of the outermost regions and the banana-producing Member States – as I consider it contradictory and counter to the last objective. I have therefore tabled an amendment with a view to leaving the decision to the Member States as to whether this should be a compulsory requirement, as the Commission proposed.

