Bananas: special framework of technical and financial assistance for traditional ACP suppliers

The Council common position is practically identical to the initial Commission proposal, apart from the inclusion of some minor changes based on the opinion of the European Parliament. A minority of the 31 amendments adopted by the European Parliament at first reading was retained and these related to the diversification of production, fair trade and Somalia (where political problems should not exclude Somali banana suppliers from the regulation). For its part, the Council introduced changes of a comitological nature which made provision for a committee to approve the Commission's application rules and a committee to ensure coherence between projects implemented under the aid programme and the general development strategy of ACP states. All Parliament's amendments relating to extending the regulation to non-traditional suppliers, additional financing for special measures or the introduction of income support were rejected (including by the European Commission). The same applied to amendments relating to the exclusion of multinationals from any Community aid and the transparency measures proposed by Parliament (consultation with all parties concerned). Finally, the inclusion of budgetary data in the text of the regulation was also rejected by the Council and the Commission.�