Brussels, 18/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Five member states - Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg - exceeded their dairy quotas in 2010-2011 and, as a result, have had to pay a super levy of about €55.57 million. Despite the overrun of the quotas in these member states, total EU production remained well below the total quota volume.
Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said that even though the decision to end the quota regime in 2015 was taken in 2008, member states must still apply the rules. Following the decisions taken in the framework of the 2008 CAP health check, quotas were increased by 1% in the year 2010/2011.
However, according to national statements, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg exceeded their national quotas by a total of almost 200,000 tonnes. The Netherlands had the largest overrun (140,349 tonnes) and will have to pay a penalty of €39 million. Denmark exceeded its quota by 30,582 tonnes and will have to pay a fine of €8.5 million. Austria overran its quota by 20,897 tonnes, resulting in a super levy charge of €5.8 million. Luxembourg will face a fine of €1 million and Cyprus €568,000.
Denmark and the Netherlands exceeded both their quota for deliveries to dairies and their direct sales quota, while the other member states exceeded only their quota for deliveries. Each member state has two quotas: one for deliveries to dairies, the other one for direct sales to consumers. These quantities are then broken down among producers (individual quotas) in each member state.
Several of the other member states which respected their quota produced far below their respective national quotas. Fourteen member states recorded deliveries at least 10% below their quota - for example, Portugal was 10.1% below its quota, Finland 11% below, Greece 20.4%, Romania 42.9%, Bulgaria 50.7%, Sweden 19.7% and Hungary 27.6%. France came in at 5% below its quota, Italy 2.4% and Spain 4.5%. For quota year 2010/2011, total EU production (167.9 million tonnes in delivery quotas) was 6% below the overall EU quota.
How the system works. Where there is an overrun in the national quota, a surplus levy - or “super levy” - is payable in the member state concerned by the producers, in proportion to their contribution to the overrun during the quota year (1 April - 31 March). The levy is €27.83 per 100kg of overrun. Each year before 1 September, the member states must report to the Commission the results of the application of the milk quota scheme over the previous period by completing a questionnaire containing all the data needed to calculate the surplus levy. (LC/transl.rt)