Norbert LINS

Policy topics Norbert LINS is active on

What Norbert LINS has said (11)

• “Thank you very much. Thank you. Chair. After consultation with groups of farmers in the sectors. I have taken their opinion and in my opinion as well. This is not at all sufficient. That's why I have tabled 30 amendments. But they in fact have asked me to put a very concrete question to the European Commission. Given the growing protests among farmers, one of the warnings from the sectors is that this will result in destabilization of the agricultural market and will undermine the competitiveness of farmers. And will the European Commission be prepared to put in place a separate crisis budget, yes or no? Let's have a clear answer. If so, then what will be the minimum size of that? From what budget line will it be funded, and from when will it be available? If not, then why is the Commission pushing through this agreement without ensuring some real protection for farmers incomes, and who will take the financial responsibility for the crisis if it does in fact end up affecting European farmers, which is almost certain anyway. Now, the way in which the European Commission is running all of this in terms of the actual substance, in terms of the communication, it's a real disaster. I mean, this does not enhance faith in the Commission's mechanisms. No, it really is just not right.”
  Agricultural funding
• “I think there are other other substitutes who will be participating in the vote. I see. Okay. It's important that we make a note of that so that we don't make any, um, formal errors. So first of all, we need to establish the quorum for a valid vote. And we would need at least a quarter of the members of the committee present. That is a total of 13. And I can see 3 or 4 times as many as that sitting here in the room this morning. So that quorum is clearly attained. Which takes us on to the election of the chair. So I'm going to ask for candidates. Jan Russell has asked for the floor.”
  Transparency requirements of EU institutions
• “Thank you very much for for inviting the AGRI committee. I will switch into my mother tongue for, uh, for my speech. Yeah, Thank you. Thank you very much for the invitation to speak for four minutes. I probably won't need four minutes. I just wanted to start by sketching the image of agriculture in general. We've got a representative of the wine sector. It's well known, uh, that, uh, uh, wine and spirits, also dairy, are reacting positively to this agreement. And on the other hand, uh, we have people who have concerns who or who reject the, uh, agreement. These are people in beef, in poultry, uh, in bioethanol. And for that reason, we need to weigh all of this up, and we need to look at the pros and cons. I think it's good that the European Commission has made compensation available for the agricultural sector. There are also questions about future monitoring and controls. What are the Commission's intentions there? How are they going to adapt monitoring? How are they going to tighten up the monitoring to make sure that the details of this agreement are respected? And how will the cumulative effect of all the different trade agreements be evaluated? That's my question. I think some of our directives and regulations that have already been adopted perhaps need to have another new look taken at them.”
  Trade relations with Mercosur
• “Thank you very much and thank you for the collaboration over the last few years. I'm greeting you here as the as a chairperson. You're not somebody who talks a lot and doesn't act much. But I've always found your work very good and this is very refreshing. So thank you very much. I would like to touch on what Mr. Dorfman mentioned. Is the F7 fit for purpose? This is something that you mentioned a lot. And the other thing is this collaboration with the member states. There are four authorities which are which are responsible with the member states. In my country, this is we're trying to produce or improve these authorities. But is there a, a vision for, for, for the future of how we want to work? So that would be my question. Could you touch on that topic, please? Thank you.”
  EU Supervision of the Rule of Law
• “So, dear colleagues, please take your seat. We will immediately start our meeting. Welcome this morning to our first constitutive meeting of the Agri Committee in this new term of office. And I'd like to welcome you all very warmly. First of all, all those who have been newly elected, those that have been re-elected. I'd like to congratulate, congratulate all of you on the election to the most important committee of this House. We've seen how many people wanted to be on this committee, and thereby we see how much it has increased in importance over recent years. We've actually got here the biggest meeting room. It's the biggest one in the European Parliament premises. And I think this is illustrative of the importance of the Agriculture Committee. Now, let me just say a couple of things which I think are important from a procedural point of view. Do you all have your voting cards with you? We're going to need that voting card of each of us for the electronic vote that's about to take place. So that's a vote that will be taking place electronically. If you've left it in your office, then now is the moment to pop out and get hold of it. Good. So. There are a couple of formalities that we have to get out of the way. The constitutive meeting of the committee is taking place, and we will be electing the chair and up to four vice chairs, according to article 200 and rule 219 of the Rules of Procedure. So first of all, this is not going to be too surprising to you. We'll be electing the chair and then we'll be electing the vice chairs. Good. So we need to know if there's any proxies. I have understood that Mr. Fidanza is being replaced by Procaccini, who I see just here in front of me, and I don't think there are any other substitutes that have been announced.”
  Transparency requirements of EU institutions
• “So, dear colleagues, please take your seat. We will immediately start our meeting. Welcome this morning to our first constitutive meeting of the Agri Committee in this new term of office. And I'd like to welcome you all very warmly. First of all, all those who have been newly elected, those that have been re-elected. I'd like to congratulate, congratulate all of you on the election to the most important committee of this House. We've seen how many people wanted to be on this committee, and thereby we see how much it has increased in importance over recent years. We've actually got here the biggest meeting room. It's the biggest one in the European Parliament premises. And I think this is illustrative of the importance of the Agriculture Committee. Now, let me just say a couple of things which I think are important from a procedural point of view. Do you all have your voting cards with you? We're going to need that voting card of each of us for the electronic vote that's about to take place. So that's a vote that will be taking place electronically. If you've left it in your office, then now is the moment to pop out and get hold of it. Good. So. There are a couple of formalities that we have to get out of the way. The constitutive meeting of the committee is taking place, and we will be electing the chair and up to four vice chairs, according to article 200 and rule 219 of the Rules of Procedure. So first of all, this is not going to be too surprising to you. We'll be electing the chair and then we'll be electing the vice chairs. Good. So we need to know if there's any proxies. I have understood that Mr. Fidanza is being replaced by Procaccini, who I see just here in front of me, and I don't think there are any other substitutes that have been announced.”
  Transparency requirements of EU institutions
• “Madam president. Commissioner colleagues. The the cap simplification package sends out a strong message to farmers in Europe. We have understood that the rules were not practical enough, they were too constraining, and so we have acted to ensure that simplification will come to farms as quickly as possible. In particular, rules for permanent grassland, uh, erosion protection. These are clear steps for progress. There will be less bureaucracy, less burden for farmers, which I'm sure they will welcome. But bureaucracy, uh, we, uh, is something we need to tackle, uh, beyond just the cap in plant protection products as well. I hope tomorrow will be discussing that in the area of pesticides. Last week, um, there was an environmental omnibus, uh, put forward. I don't think it's quite the breakthrough we need in terms of reducing the burden for our farmers. We have the nature restoration law. We have, uh, nitrates, bio gases, all of this we need to look at still. So we've started moving in the right direction. We need to keep making progress. There's still a lot of work to do to really help make farmers competitive in Europe. Thank you.”
  Agriculture (green)
• “Madam president. Commissioner. Colleagues. The Common Agricultural Policy must continue to be a standalone, reliable. Um. Budget adjusted. Adjusted for inflation, it must remain. And we need, um, an independent, uh, law on this. And it must be clear that we decide on the cap is a question of creating a security for farmers in the context of political uncertainty in volatile markets. We need to guarantee food security. We need to maintain the competitiveness of our farm sector within the EU and also outside it. It's not an ehm, an end in itself. It's a question of supporting farmers in Europe and rural areas. The commissioner talked about, uh, um, health services and broadband in rural areas. These people are providing us with our food. So we need to ensure that we can maintain cohesion of society in Europe. Cohesion between urban and rural areas. Nothing less than this is at stake here. So we need a clear signal next week about this from the commission. Thank you.”
  Agricultural funding
• “Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Commissioner, thank you for coming to the committee. I'm speaking on behalf of the agri committee. I think we have a pro-European European approach. Your European. If you can react to criticism that there are difficult problems that these are tackled with, the Commission has done that again and has made a proposal which basically goes in the right direction. I think unfortunately we have too little time. For this approach, which goes in the right direction to improve it further. I think we need to stop the clock urgently that. The situation has been mentioned many times that we're trying to make it easier in one place, but in other places. The burden gets greater. So this for a serious approach to this regulation, we need more time and we need legislative procedure which is changed. So it's necessary. That we agree on and stop the clock, and that we then seriously work on amendments. If you acknowledge what is there's a good intention in the regulation and but it's poorly implemented. And if that's the case, you must do act or either abolish the regulation or change it in the right way and put it in the right direction.”
  EU policy on pesticides
• “I mean, it's difficult to understand if we conclude a Mercosur agreement, uh, that, uh, our own, uh, people are, uh, straight jacketed by very stringent rules. Uh, for example, there's no willingness, uh. Uh, to come up with a zero risk, a category on the part of the commission for EU member states and member states that have no deforestation, uh, risk, for example. And then also in farming, uh, I mentioned bioethanol a moment ago. Uh, if we see, uh, bio, uh, ethanol resources as a strength rather than fighting against it, then perhaps there would be more openness there as well towards the Mercosur agreement, if we can see it as an opportunity to expand, uh, market rather than contract. So I think these are tasks for the commission, not just related to the agreement itself, but to take another look at other policy areas and over the coming weeks and months, send out messages to the affected sectors and perhaps lead to a rethink in some some people's minds. And thank you once again for the invitation.”
  Trade relations with Mercosur
• “Thank you very much, Thomas Waitz, I am not at all surprised that the Greens are saying they might be able to agree, because there are a lot of positive things in the commission's package and a lot of positive things for organic farming as well. We also see the results from the mini cap last year. We had some simplifications that we started. We have extension of the arable land, and we've actually had a bigger harvest this year than in previous years, and that is the outcome of the first round of simplifications.”
  Agriculture (green)