A food aid scheme set up in 1987 will end after 2013 even though the numbers needing help have been rising due to the crisis. MEPs want something to replace it.

What future for food aid?

Some 18 million Europeans live  below the poverty line.

But a scheme set up in 1987 to feed them  from food surpluses will end next year,

However, in the current crisis, the numbers  needing help have been rising.

We've noticed a year on year increase of  20% in the numbers coming to us for help.

It's not just people on the margins  of society, either.

Today there's a new category  that's worrying us: the working poor.

Agricultural reforms  have removed most surpluses

and some Member States refuse  to go on paying for food.

But MEPs feel one answer  could lie in a recent report

that said Europeans are wasteful with food.

We waste a lot of food,  we throw away a lot of food in Europe

and we should do something in this area.

Every single European citizen  wastes 179kg of food every year.

The food wasted in a country such as Italy

would be enough to feed  a whole country such as Spain.

it's unclear how the charitable food banks  will be supplied after 2013.

According to Armand Perego,  there's only one solution.

We must have solidarity. Only the solidarity  of people helping one another can save us.

Otherwise we're going to go  through a very tense and difficult time.

Because, you know, somebody  who has nothing else to lose

and who is hungry  can become dangerous.

MEPs voted for the compromise that keeps  funding the system until the end of 2013

but they do want something to replace it.