mr president i would like to thank the commission for the answer incomplete as it is
there are very specific questions raised by the chair of the committee on agriculture and rural development and they have not been answered fully
i would particularly question the figures and perhaps you might clarify them
did you say that sixty-six of production is now free-range
that is not the information i have
i dare say that the information you have is therefore selective and you do need to have a very thorough stakeholders meeting because those are let me say very enriched figures
they do not at all give the true story of egg production in the european union
let me also say that if it was easy to comply with this legislation and if our consumers really and i mean this really really wanted welfare-friendly framing systems they would pay the price for them
they want them
they do not value them and they do not want to pay the price for these
i have not received one query from a consumer in my time here in the european parliament since two thousand and four begging me to have this legislation implemented
remember that folks
that is the fact of the situation
having said that it is important that this legislation passed by this house is fully implemented and that those who have invested huge amounts of money to be compliant are protected by the european union
i think the commission knows it will have a legal problem on its hands
let me address the market situation
there will be a very visible pile-up of eggs eighty-three million of them on one january twenty twelve that are illegal morally and ethically we cannot dump those eggs
it would be horrendous if we did and also the market would suffer and prices to consumers would rise and there would be protests and revolt
the commission needs to tell us what is going to happen on that day because it is inevitable these eggs will be on the market and there will be a black market in eggs of some description so we do need clarity on this
those who are in the transition phase also need to know that there will be no roll-back because they are confused about the messages they are getting
of all of the issues we debated this week this is a crucial one for our consumers but also our producers
we need some answers from the commission
