Irish Regions Office Website

September 19, 2008

Agri-funding towards global food crisis?

A report by Gay Mitchell MEP on a plan to use surplus money from the EU’s agriculture budget to boost food production in developing countries and provide urgent food aid has been backed by the European Parliament’s Development Committee meeting on 17 September. The proposal recommends that a sum of €1billion over the next 2 or 3 years – to be matched by money from the Member States –be made available to relieve hunger and to safeguard gains made by aid programmes. Most of the money would be used towards long-term improvement measures.
The move could be made feasible by the fact that the amount in question is specifically earmarked for EU agricultural price support subsidies at a time when food prices are rising not only in Europe but throughout the Developing World. Mitchell summed up the urgency of the situation, saying ”We have a harvest coming up and next March is an important deadline. If we vote this money through Parliament now, we would be able to commit to spend €750 million this year, in time.” He also underlined the need to refocus EU efforts on the Millennium Development goal to end hunger and malnutrition and to demonstrate that the Union is capable of reacting to events in the world. A decision on whether to proceed will be made by the Parliament plenary session on 7 October.
Further details: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/028-36464-350-12-51-903-20080904STO36266-2008-15-12-2008/default_en.htm

Posted by iroronan at September 19, 2008 07:07 PM