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Pan-European co-operation in the field of agriculture

Recommendation 1174 (1992)

Author(s):
Parliamentary Assembly
Origin
Assembly debate on 4 February 1992 (20th Sitting) (seeDoc. 6547, report of the Committee on Agriculture, Rapporteurs : MM. Seiler and Sipos). Text adopted by the Assembly on 4 February 1992 (20th Sitting).
Thesaurus
1. The Assembly has taken note of the Committee on Agriculture's report on its recent mission to Hungary and Romania to analyse the food situation and the requirements of agricultural reforms. It stresses that the highest priority should be given to assisting the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe to accomplish their economic and democratic reforms, whereby the agricultural sector should receive special attention in view of its crucial importance for food supply, employment and balanced development.
2. The Assembly recalls its Recommendation 1167 (1991) on the crucial role of food supply in helping to consolidate democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.
3. The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite governments of member states and those of other members of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), the group of twenty-four industrialised nations (G24) and the European Community :
3.1 to increase their assistance to the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe for the privatisation, reorganisation and modernisation of their agricultural sector, within the framework of a general policy for rural development, and to help in drawing up this policy ;
3.2 to give particular attention to the upgrading of skills and knowledge of future private farmers through training and exchange schemes, and through the adaptation and strengthening of existing training facilities, notably to help them overcome the problems arising from the transition from collective to private farming ;
3.3 to give direct help for the modernisation of agricultural machinery in the private sector by, inter alia, facilitating the transfer of used equipment and machines and to provide training in their use and maintenance ;
3.4 to make sure that private farmers get access to farms of viable size ;
3.5 to assure that private farmers get access to low interest loans during the transformation period ;
3.6 to assist in the building up of private distribution and sales organisations for agricultural products ;
3.7 to give incentives to private industry to involve itself in modernising and adapting production capacity for agricultural machinery and equipment ;
3.8 to assist and involve private industry and co-operatives in improving and upgrading rural infrastructures, agricultural storage, processing and transport systems ;
3.9 to include environmentally friendly farming methods in all relevant policy areas with a view to revitalising rural regions, achieve a better balance of food markets and promote trade in agricultural products for the benefit of the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe ;
3.10 to continue and enhance short-term assistance aimed at absorbing present food surpluses in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, that is, to increase access to Western markets and to promote triangular food transfers, but avoid dumping food surpluses with its negative consequences for local agricultural production and agricultural policies.
4. The Assembly recommends furthermore that the Committee of Ministers -in the framework of the Council of Europe's Demosthenes programme -assist national, regional and local authorities in Central and Eastern Europe in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to implement land-use assessments and designing and monitoring legal reforms linked to the privatisation of agricultural land.