Text tabled : A6-0315/2006

  Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos, Fausto Correia, Edite Estrela, Emanuel Jardim Fernandes, Elisa Ferreira, Ana Maria Gomes, Jamila Madeira, Manuel António dos Santos e Sérgio Sousa Pinto (PSE), in writing. – (PT) We voted against the rapporteur’s position and therefore in favour of the Commission’s legislative proposal because ‘modulation’ – that is to say, the possibility of transferring up to 20% of appropriations granted to farmers receiving more than EUR 5 000 per year from the first to the second pillar of the CAP – is an essential instrument for introducing a measure of justice into the distribution of agricultural aid.

We wish to point out that in Portugal only 5% of farmers receive more than EUR 5 000 per year. We fail to understand how the current situation can be preferable to the alternative proposal of ‘voluntary modulation’.

We, the undersigned to this explanation of vote, advocate that the ideal solution would be ‘compulsory modulation’, which we believe to be inevitable in the short to medium term. Given the alternative put forward, we find its rejection by Parliament incomprehensible.

In Portugal’s case, the proposed mode of application would make it possible to increase rural development aid by some EUR 50 million per year, which would benefit many farmers who are currently excluded from any support.