mr president i shall be no exception in congratulating my scottish colleague george lyon on a very solid report
there is much in this report to be content with and i echo the comments of a number of colleagues this morning
i particularly like the very clear reference in the report that food production is the primary purpose of the common agricultural policy
everything else is very worthy very desirable but secondary
we must be clear in our own minds that food security is an integral part of our european national security and the primary public benefit of the cap which is worth paying for in its own right
i pick up particularly on mr la via's comments on the budget which have been echoed by remarkably few colleagues this morning
perhaps it is a little stereotypically scottish to focus so much on the budget but unless we have sufficient monetary resources allocated to this policy it is all pointless
i would be grateful for a few words from our commissioner about how he proposes to defend that budget going forward not least because a number of member states including britain want to end direct payments to farmers
you can however rest assured of the support of this house in maintaining a workable cap and a workable budget and this forms a good basis for ongoing discussion
