The Coordinator of the Agricultural Committee (COAG) calls the ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Morocco by the International Trade Commission of the European Parliament a "frontal attack on the Spanish fruit and vegetable produce network." It is a "disappointing and hypocritical stance. We can not approve a new agreement that practically liberates all the agricultural product market without ensuring an effective border control for prices and amounts and without requiring the minimum labor standards, environmental health and the EU requires our productions," pointed out Miguel Lopez, secretary general of COAG.
Over the next two weeks, COAG will "redouble its efforts" in Brussels to prevent the European Parliament from definitely ratifying the launch of the agreement on February 15th, with the current terms. Also, COAG will require the autonomous communities of the producing regions and the central Government's "maximum involvement" in this issue and a defence "without any cracks on the future of our producers. "
"We can not bend to the commercial interests of those who set the course for the EU, for example Germany, in exchange for dismantling our rich fruit and vegetable network," Lopez said, he pointed out that the fruit and vegetable sector produced in 2011 about 13,670 million Euro, one third of the Spanish final agricultural production. "In a context like the present, we can not afford to endanger four out of every ten jobs in the regions," he added.