Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for European defence and, therefore, the first thing we have to do is to reclaim the role of food as a fundamental European defence weapon for the interests of food and food sovereignty. To this end, shielding CAP funds in the new Multiannual Financial Framework is essential: without a mix of funds, where we would lose out. Trade agreements have to come with reciprocity and always respecting our farmers and also our consumers. We like the proposal of the import control office in Mercosur, it is the way to help farmers with those agreements. And bet on science: new genomic practices need to be unblocked in the Council. Lower the water footprint. Betting on the circular economy, a new business niche in rural areas. Of course, simplifying the lives of farmers – men and women – and looking for a formula, in addition, that allows the integration of the elderly, that does not penalise them and that does not lose out. And that young people have a real opportunity. Let's not demonize livestock, let's try to ensure that tariffs at this time do not involve the agri-food sector, nor the bourbon American and European wine. We have to leave them out because it is a very vulnerable sector that during all this time has suffered the high costs and difficulties and this is the time to protect it. Congratulations on the vision, dear Commissioner.

Mr President, Mr Luena, the NextGenerationEU instrument and the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Spain are at 51% of their commitment, 49% is missing and they have had no water perspective, only an energy perspective. If Commissioner Roswall now establishes a governance to be able to use this money in a water perspective, would this be the case for the Socialist Party and the Government of Spain and would they give the go-ahead for farmers, irrigated areas and the possibilities of water infrastructure? The Honourable Members of Vox voted in favour of Mr Sánchez and gave him the possibility not to use it enough for water infrastructure. Will you be in favour if there is a reprogramming of the NextGenerationEU funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility of the 49% that you still have uncommitted in Spain?

Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for the push on water from the new Commission. We think it's fundamental. I am from a desert land, next to the European desert of Tabernas, and there it is demonstrated with the orchard of Europe – because 80% of the fruit and vegetable product is exported from there – that it is possible to address this issue. Why? Because there is twenty times less water footprint in all agri-food products. That is the great miracle: for water infrastructure, use the Next Generation funds, the European Investment Bank and create infrastructure where science, with all that is being researched, allows. I believe at the moment that it is essential to pay attention to all water sources: all are necessary, some in prevention and others appropriate to agricultural issues. I think the circular economy is very important, and wastewater gives us an opportunity in Europe to have reclaimed water, which we can even inject into our piggy bank of the future, which is, in this case, all groundwater. Therefore, I believe that it can be done, that we have the obligation to do so and that, in addition, at this time, countries like Spain, like mine, should work on these hydraulic prevention infrastructures - also adapted to what is the agricultural issue - and, of course, lower taxes, VAT on food, which the reduction has not been extended at this time in that cheat decree that yesterday led to the Congress of Deputies. I believe that food security is essential and, to achieve it, we have to work on water infrastructure, as the new Commission and the new Commissioner are doing right now in Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, global warming affects the entire population, European security and the health of Europeans, especially the most vulnerable. We must work to reduce greenhouse gases. But how to do it also without putting Europe's jobs and economy at risk, without radicalism, without sectarianism, with common sense, with correct policies and with economic resources? And inside Europe, but also looking outside: Europe cannot work alone. Situations such as that in southern Europe, such as drought, a direct consequence of climate change, need to be recognised in countries; strengthening regulations and betting on a directive on water scarcity for the population and productive sectors, also working with technology and investing in solving the 16% lost with water leaks. We must also focus on transfer, groundwater, which is our watershed, reservoirs, desalination and white hope: circular economy, reclaimed water. We must also work on the prevention of DANA, such as that of Valencia, where little work has really been done on the prevention of hydrological plans: neither in the restoration of the Poyo nor in the regulatory reservoirs as in Cheste. And, of course, more struggle, more prevention, less sectarianism is needed. In this case, I am talking about not asking so late - 12 weeks later, as Spain has done - for the solidarity funds that Europe has offered. I think that, at the moment, fires are also a very serious problem. We're looking at it. In this case, emissions must be reduced, but above all we must also assess the consequences that extinction equipment could have throughout the year and civil protection strategies, as well as work on the carbon market, as established in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, access to safe and quality drinking water is a fundamental right of every human being. But the reality is that access to water is not guaranteed in Europe due to drought. With climate change, 45% of the territory is affected and today there are water cuts in southern Europe. So we have to do that, access the water, and then also control the contaminants and microplastics that it contains. It is clear that this strategy of resilient water management is good news. But we must introduce a directive on drought in this strategy, something we ask from the People's Party. Throughout history, water has been dammed in periods of drought, but what is clear is that today, due to political sectarianism, we do not want to dam. This water source has been disdained, with how important the regulation reservoirs are, which in Cheste would have dammed water and also avoided the damage. In this case, I am also talking about improving networks to prevent water loss and the circular economy: reclaimed, desalinated water, very important for injecting into aquifers, which is the piggy bank for future generations. To this end, there are instruments: the EIB is essential, but also the Next Generation EU, which in countries like mine is at 24% of its implementation and only 51%, in this case, is committed.

Mr President, Commissioner, thank you, first of all, for supporting our country in this devastating DANA in Valencia, Andalusia and other regions of Spain; But, above all, in reconstruction, because I believe that this is important for competitiveness. At this time we already have funds in place: with Measure 23 through the EAFRD, with the crisis reserve, but also with RESTORE, with the ERDF and with the European Social Fund. But I want to dedicate a moment to NextGenerationEU, which I think is white hope: 24% has been spent in my country and almost nothing has been spent on preventive water works. And, of course, nothing in agriculture: neither in simplification, nor in technology 5.0, nor in reducing the water footprint of agricultural sectors, which is essential for competitiveness. But today there has been talk of a concept of capital importance that is the circular economy. It is time to have income to fight climate change and for the agricultural sectors: At the moment, waste, by-products, can be an opportunity where we have to work to equip those sectors with technology and make them really competitive: in this case, reclaimed water (to balance the sector in terms of water consumption) and, of course, biogas, slurry or similar issues. I believe that the market is fundamental in these cases. We have to work on reciprocity clauses that allow the sectors not to have unfair competition and, of course, that they are not the ones who pay the tariffs of other countries. We must not only do it with the United States, but also, in this case, with China, and that is why we must have a powerful European legal cabinet that is a specialist in these cases. And, of course, make a CAP for the future that also works for professional farmers, who are the ones who are strengthening the population in the rural territory and will give the access we want to a powerful agriculture where young people - men and women - enter. Europe has to decide what it wants to be when it grows up: whether a beautiful museum or a beautiful and competitive museum. And there, agriculture has a lot to say.

Madam President, Spain and Valencia are deeply saddened by human life and the losses we have had. Today DANA is in my land, in Malaga, but we want to thank Europe for its solidarity. Climate change must be combated, especially DANA in the Mediterranean. But how? We are also fighting against the water denialism represented by Mrs Ribera. Because the Hydrological Plan in 2004 was also done by scientists, but there the Hydrological Plan was loaded, which clearly said that regulation reservoirs had to be made in the upper part of the torrential rivers as in Cheste. And they took it. So this is also fighting climate change. It is also fighting climate change to restore the channels. Of course I do. And they haven't. Who has the responsibility for the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation? Mrs. Ribera. And, gentlemen of the PSOE, everyone will be to blame; But Mrs Ribera, instead of, in the DANA, taking the reins and taking the lead - and you have to think about it - came here to prepare her tour for a personal matter and did not put herself, in the DANA, at the head of a situation of the worst that our country has suffered. That is why she cannot be Vice-President of this Committee. Valencians don't deserve it.

Mr President, we are talking about the future of rail in Europe, but now we have a present and, precisely, in our country, where there is unprecedented rail chaos. And that affects the precarious way the European connection looks. Isolation of regions such as Extremadura, Cantabria, important areas of Galicia or provinces such as Huelva or mine, Almería, which are absolutely isolated. And the latest incident in Chamartín, in Madrid, where a train has been derailed that has endangered users by circulating an uncontrolled convoy. I mean there are delays, cancellations, obsolete trains, saturated knots.... These facts are not isolated and that is why we are asking the Commission to act. Europe cannot afford that image, it has to intervene, and let us also really bet on very important railway axes in the Iberian Peninsula. We are talking about Seville-Huelva-Faro, Madrid-Lisbon, Lisbon-Porto-Vigo or the central corridor and the Mediterranean corridor, which currently has an accumulated delay until Almeria and which we need, with European funds, to be controlled, so that we go faster in all this. Therefore, our country at this moment, at present, has a very important negative in which the European Commission must participate and intervene.

Mr President, Europe has a problem that has already become structural: climate change, especially drought, affects 45% of the territory, but especially in southern Europe, especially in territories such as mine, Spain, especially in autonomous communities such as Andalusia or Murcia. The autonomous communities have worked to have a 20 times lower water footprint in agricultural products, but, on the other hand, the Spanish Government has not used the NextGenerationEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility on water issues more than very little; Yes in energy, but not in water, and that is the reality. We must work, and we therefore agree that a water police station should be set up at the moment and that a European water plan and a European water pact should be worked on, because this issue cannot be politicised, it is a social issue. In addition, access to water is in the Charter of Human Rights. And we have to work because 60% of crops are being destroyed in many territories. We cannot disdain any water source, we cannot politicize desalination, reclaimed water or interconnections. What is clear is that we must make a water revolution, throughout Europe, and the limit is only put by scientists, not politicians. The common agricultural policy must be a tool for that water revolution, for the water balance we seek, together with other additional European funds. Let us not forget that water becomes agriculture in food, those fundamental foods that Europeans need for food sovereignty and to consume healthy and sustainable food.

Mr President, Commissioner, we welcome this change of position, as we consider the dialogue with the sector to be very important. I also think that the sector has been asking us for help for a long time because of the problems of excessive demand: without time, without resources, with war conflicts, with costs ..., in addition to a Green Deal without resources or time. I think we have to fight to avoid CAP reductions and work to avoid bureaucracy: agriculture can't stand more regulations that, with the best intention in the world, are taking a turn for the worse for arable land. Nor can agriculture be the currency of tariffs, and it is essential to work on a food chain that gives security to the farmer, as well as being fair with their work and their product. We will demand mirror clauses to prevent unfair competition, and of course neither the livestock sector nor the wine sector can be demonised because they are basic to the European rural world. I believe that, in addition, competitiveness is essential if we want young people to be incorporated into the future of agriculture, and true sustainability is both the circular economy, with which we must work with by-products, providing added value, and ensuring access to water for the sector: the most productive areas are the driest areas and we have to fight that consequence of climate change. To the Social Democrats I say that small farms cannot be confronted with competitive and professional agriculture because they are fundamental to the food sovereignty of the European Union. Finally, we believe that fisheries should also benefit from this strategic dialogue.