madam president on behalf of the ppe group i urge the european parliament to give the green light to this very important agreement
we believe that this will facilitate the doha round negotiations and also provide an impetus to our bilateral negotiations with the mercosur countries on a free trade agreement
we welcome the overall trend towards liberalisation of the global trade in bananas including the current wto agreement as well as bilateral agreements with the central american and andean countries and possibly one day with mercosur
the motion for a resolution and i pay tribute for this to our rapporteur is a well-balanced one especially since we have taken into account the interests of our partners from the acp countries as well as local european banana producers
it is my deep conviction that while we move towards greater liberalisation of the global trade in bananas we should make sure that we do not wipe out industries or sectors that have traditionally played important economic and social roles in certain european regions such as the canary islands guadeloupe martinique madeira the azores and others
finally we hope the commission will take these concerns into account and will take steps to adjust the support package for domestic eu producers earmarked in the posei envelope and if necessary take other steps in order to ensure that in parallel to the trend of liberalisation of the global trade in bananas domestic eu producers are able to remain on the market and foster their traditional activities
a good opportunity to do that will be during the discussions on the next eu financial perspective
