Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski:

In general, as to what is and can be the influence of the court for the future agricultural policy, the competence of the court, like all of the external audit institutions of the European Union, is like a doctor who gives a diagnosis and recommends medicines; whether the patient uses the medicines is a decision of the patient where the patient is generally the European Union.

This is my point of view. For the first time, before the start of the debate about the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, the court has interesting dialogue and reports and we discuss them. I again thank the committee for the invitation; it is a good example that we discuss seriously this data which show the dramatic conclusions of our audit. This is very important. In the Polish Parliament, and in the European Parliament, there was a similar debate. This is the first time the court is well prepared for this debate about the future. However, we are not politicians. It is not our decision which of our recommendations will be adopted and which of them will not be.

About the family farming, as I recall, this is not from the audit. As a former Member of the European Parliament, I am aware there was a long discussion of what was first a proposal of the European Commission to cut the payment for the big farms and to give more to the family farming. Finally, it was not accepted because the lobby of the big industrial farming was very strong there. These are politicians' decisions.

Our satisfaction, as a court, is that now we have an interesting report which is a good basis for the discussion. As Mr. Welch stated, we will prepare the briefing paper - our opinion based on the results of audit. I hope that our observation for the first time will be seriously considered during the debate about the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. I again thank the committee for its interest in us.