Brussels, 15/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 11 November, the European Parliament (EP) said that measures should be taken to help the livestock sector in the current period of crisis. In a resolution, it also called for the EU to act to “limit price volatility and speculation in the European livestock sector”.
The European Commission was called on to propose market instruments which ensure sufficient supply of cereals for animal feeds. The EP says a safety net should be put in place for all cereal sectors, with a minimum intervention price for the tendering system.
MEPs also called on the Commission to take the necessary steps to tackle the excesses of speculation on Community and global markets, in particular as part of the new Financial Instruments Directive. They say that a protein plan for the European Union should be introduced as a matter of urgency. This, they argue, would promote the cultivation of protein and leguminous crops, which could also play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The EP also expressed its “serious concern” at the recent consolidation in the fertiliser market, which has led to a situation on many national markets whereby there is effectively only one supplier and no competition. It called on the Commission, therefore, to take the necessary action to “prevent price fixing and abuses of dominant positions”.
The EP called on the Commission to take into account, as part of the next common agricultural policy (CAP) reform, the particular vulnerability of certain livestock sectors - for example, grassland beef production - and the unfair conditions under which they are competing with third countries.
Imports. The EP asked the Commission to ensure that meat imported from non-EU countries meets the same criteria, particularly EU rules on animal welfare, “so as to prevent unfair competition”. It stated, too, that, in the coming years, the pigmeat and the poultry sectors would have to comply with still more stringent requirements, without any financial support from the European Union.
Trade. The EP called on the Commission fully to safeguard the interests of European producers in bilateral trade negotiations with Mercosur and other third countries, by “avoiding any concessions that could put EU livestock production at risk”.
GMOs. MEPs called on the Commission to provide legal certainty for imports of soya and maize from third countries, by introducing a “pragmatic threshold for the adventitious presence of GMOs which are not yet authorised in the European Union but are under scientific consideration”. The EU is highly dependent on soya beans and maize imported from third countries. Any interruption of the supply of these products resulting from the merest presence of any non-authorised GMOs “has a very costly impact on the European feed industry and livestock farmers” (for example, €1 billion if disruption lasts six months).
Meat and bone meal. The EP asked the Commission to “review” the current ban on meat and bone meal for non-ruminants and to “evaluate the possibility of lifting the restrictions under conditions which would ensure a maximum level of food safety”.
At the present time, the viability of many EU livestock holdings is being seriously threatened at present by a combination of factors (including the rising costs of inputs, dependence on third countries for feed material, the recent surge in cereals prices, and the low prices being received by farmers for meat products).
The Commission is against immediate market measures. European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloº said that the issue of price volatility would be “dealt with in the reform of the CAP”. The Commission is considering “proposing mechanisms to address the issue of income volatility”, he said. The commissioner pointed out with regard to measures in the livestock sector (only two are available: export refunds and private storage): - 1) export refunds “cannot be justified as the world price is on the high side”; - 2) for the moment, there is no excess meat on the Community market, “and for that reason private storage measures cannot currently be justified”.
“No emergency measure can be justified” in the cereals market as “the problem is not one of cereal supply to the European market as the high price of cereals on the European market is not due to a lack of supply”. Cioloº pointed out that intervention stocks - essentially barley - stand at 5.6 million tonnes of cereals. 2.8 million tonnes have just been earmarked for the 2011 programme to assist the least well-off and the remainder will be put up for sale on the internal market shortly. The decision had already been taken and the cereals would be put on the market as early as the end of the month, he indicated. (L.C./transl.rt)