Brussels, 30/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On the sidelines of the informal meeting of the European Agriculture Ministers, from Sunday 29 May to Tuesday 1 June in Debrecen, Hungary, Dacian Ciolos announced on Sunday that he would like to set up a working group to draft proposals, by the end of June, to help cattle farmers overcome the crisis, due to dry weather and high animal feed prices.
“I will suggest that we get together around the table - representatives of the professional organisations and of the European States - to discuss the specific measures we can take into account for this sector”, said the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, according to an AFP press release. “A working group could be set in place fairly quickly, so that we can have conclusions and proposals by the end of June”, which could be discussed in July by the Agriculture Ministers of the 27 countries of the European Union, he explained. These could then be incorporated into the legislative package on the reform on the common agriculture policy (CAP) which Commissioner Ciolos intends to present in October.
A fortnight ago, the European Commission gave its agreement to advance payments on direct payments, to help farmers to ride out the drought which has hit Northern European badly. Already facing spiralling animal feed prices, due to raw material price hikes internationally, farmers in many countries do not have enough fodder for their animals, due to a lack of rain, and are having to buy in to feed them. However, “the meat market is doing well. The problem is that they are unable to claw back feed costs on the consumer prices”, and the EU currently has no effective instruments to intervene on the market in such cases, explained Mr Ciolos.
“In future, we must improve the instruments available to us to take account of the producers' margins” when triggering adequate crisis mechanisms, said Dacian Ciolos. (L.C./transl.fl)