Strasbourg 15th February 2012 – The European Parliament has today voted to extend the EU’s free food scheme until 2013 under the umbrella of the CAP. Set up in 1987, the scheme provides food aid to the most vulnerable persons in the EU. Watch the debate and the opinions of different parties expressed yesterday here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/europe/newsid_9695000/9695142.stm
Commenting on the vote, Green social affairs spokesperson Marije Cornelissen said:
“It is a relief that the millions of vulnerable people relying on the scheme will be able to rely on it for a further two years. While there are clearly problems with the scheme in its current format, it would be irresponsible to abruptly end the scheme, as the agriculture ministers had originally envisaged. The Commission must now use the interim phase to develop proposals for an EU scheme that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable people in a better way.”
“Whereas, formerly, agricultural surpluses could be used to provide food used for this scheme, these surpluses have now almost disappeared, and rightly so. We should now look at ways in which food banks can start operating independently of supplies from surpluses, and most of all, how the EU can support modern anti-poverty measures aimed at lifting people out of poverty and therefore reducing dependency on food aid.”