Examination of Witnesses (Questions 777
- 779)
THURSDAY 6 DECEMBER 2007
Mr Beniamin Gawlik
Q777 Chairman: Thank
you very much indeed for coming and helping us with our inquiry.
We are very grateful to you for finding the time.
Mr Gawlik: I hope it will be a great pleasure
for me. It is the first time I have spoken before such an honourable
audience. I hope I will be able to answer all of your questions.
I must admit I might have some problems with answering questions
concerning rural development. Unfortunately, I am not a specialist
in this area but I have some handouts from my colleagues from
the capital so I will try to use them from time to time.
Q778 Chairman:
We are a Sub-Committee of our European Union Committee and for
us this is a formal evidence session, so a record will be taken.
If you want to say anything off the record just tell us. The other
thing is you will get a copy of the transcript as soon as it is
ready so you can make any revisions. I suppose a good starting
point is to ask you what has been the experience of Polish agriculture
since Poland joined the EU and what effect has joining the EU
had on your agriculture?
Mr Gawlik: From our perspective, and that of
our farmers, the CAP is a marvellous tool. Just before accession
farmers were the most euro-sceptical part of our society and according
to the polls only 20% of farmers were in favour of joining the
EU and accession. After accession that figure has changed dramatically
and 70% of farmers are euro enthusiasts. From the farmers' perspective
it was a good thing and they have profited from accession and
for the part of the economic sector concerning agri-food it has
been a positive thing. From accession our export to the European
market has increased to both old and so-called new Member States.
The overall net balance of trade has risen by five times during
the first two years. It has been quite positive. Our sector, especially
the processing sector, has made quite good progress if you take
into account that before accession in 2000 or 2001 there were
only 100 processing establishments which could sell to the European
market and after accession there are more than 2,000 establishments
in the sector of meat processing and dairy processing which sell
to the European market. It is true that at the beginning some
of the processing plants had transitional periods to adjust and
there were close to 700 such establishments which were listed
in an annex to our Act of accession. Right now the end of the
transitional period is approaching and I asked my colleagues in
the capital and it seems a couple of them will not adjust in time.
It is also worthwhile mentioning that many of them had adjusted
even before the end of the agreed period for adjustment. Some
of them have adjusted totally but for some of them, if they were
involved in a different type of business, let us say a meat processing
plant which also had a slaughterhouse, to adjust the slaughterhouse
was very costly so they just closed the slaughterhouse and invested
in the rest of the business.
Q779 Chairman:
The benefit to Polish agriculture has been more the access to
European markets, that has been the main thing, rather than CAP
payments, is that right?
Mr Gawlik: CAP payments, yes, and all the instruments
which are connected to the CAP. Most of the farmers feel that
there is still unequal treatment on the European market, at least
in the case of farmers because they started from 25% of the direct
payments. Definitely the introduction of the CAP led to a more
stable market for the farmers and direct payments have led to
an increase in their ability to modernise. On the other side there
was also part of the rural development support even before accession,
the so-called SAPARD[1]
programme, which was used quite efficiently by our processing
industry. Maybe less by the farmers but definitely by the processing
industry. After 2004 farmers had access to the second pillar as
well.
1 SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture
and Rural Development) established in June 1999 by the Council
of the European Union to help countries of Central and Eastern
Europe deal with the problems of the structural. Back
| 
