mr president i wish to congratulate the rapporteurs on their work on the cap health check as it is important to highlight the increased work of parliament in this process and i would also like to welcome the attitude of the council and the commission in these negotiations
i believe that it augurs well for future negotiations when parliament will enjoy full codecision with the council on agricultural matters
coming from an agricultural area in ireland it is sad to see that in recent times farmers have turned against the eu project for various reasons one of which is the perceived lack of transparency of negotiations in the council
however if and when the lisbon treaty is adopted parliament will be centrally involved and thus there will be a bigger role for open transparent debate on cap-related issues leading to greater legitimacy amongst the farming community
the way forward in europe is for parliament to be fully involved in the decision-making process and that will only be finally achieved by having codecision
