THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION RECEIVED 575 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SPAIN, FRANCE AND PORTUGAL.

The General Directorate of Agriculture and Rural Development has already published the contributions of the Public Consultation that opened in October and ended last year. 12 November.

With this Consultation the Commission intends to examine the effectiveness of existing measures, in the context of the recent reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC), with a view to the next review of the current POSEI agreements.

Of the 575 contributions, 526 come from Spain, against the 22 of France and the 27 from Portugal. In addition, within the Spanish contribution, the 96 per cent corresponds to the Canary Islands.

Canary administrations who participated in the consultation include the Government of the Canary Islands; except the Cabildos of El Hierro and La Gomera, the remaining were contributions, as well as eight municipalities of Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

The consultation was open to all, but the Commission said to have special interest in knowing the opinion of citizens, organisations and public authorities in the ultra peripheral regions.

Like this, the municipality of the village provided thirty-seven documents that contributed, on the basis of the consultation questionnaire, from the perspective of the different sectors, What was an outstanding work.

Agricultural enterprises of export and internal market, livestock, Community of irrigators, socio-economic entities, as well as a significant number of individuals, They participated in the consultation.

Among the documents of the village, It highlights the uniqueness of the contribution made by the City Council, as he picks up the website of the Commission, It consisted in a motion that does not conform to the public consultation questionnaire.

In fact, This was approved the day before the end of the term in an extraordinary plenary session, Recognizing the mayor who had not worked the document in consultation with sectors, because they were unaware of its existence, by assumed that they did not have any document.

In the same line stands out the document of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria that, with a few simple “suggestions” collected on a sheet, dispatches this opportunity that has been qualified for “historical”, even by the Commission.

However, the prolific contribution of the village is one of the best exercises of analysis, evaluation and proposal of all those who have been made in recent years. Although the time was insufficient, the quality and quantity of contributions demonstrate the interest of the primary sector of the municipality for participating in what affects you actively.

The Association for Rural Development, RURALDEA, It encouraged the consultation through two working groups which resulted in several of the documents that, In addition to be sent to the Commission, They also form part of the initiatives showing the entity.

The POSEI includes special measures to guarantee the supply of Staples, and to support local agricultural production in the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira and the French overseas departments of meeting, Guadalupe, Martinique, French Guiana and, starting from the next 1 in January of 2014, the island of Mayotte, at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel.

The annual budget currently allocated to the POSEI programmes is of 653 million euros, of which 268 € m correspond to the Canary Islands, and, According to Commissioner, This initiative is not intended to modify it.

The Commission envisages that the conclusions of the revision of the POSEI, that it will be widely into account the responses to this consultation, submitted to the European Parliament and the Council here at the beginning of 2014.