Brussels, 24/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on the reform of the common market organisation on Monday 24 September, European agriculture ministers were divided over updates to the reference prices. Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Estonia said that the reference prices should not be increased, whilst another group of countries (France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, Ireland and others) would like a mechanism making it possible to adjust prices on the basis of production costs and for certain sensitive sectors (livestock, milk, olive oil). “I don't think anybody wants to go back to the time when prices were set annually, and we should not lose sight of the 'WTO' aspects in this debate. Increasing the level of the reference prices would reduce our margin for actions to respond to crises by other measures, even when the public intervention tools are not activated”, said Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos.
Additionally, the so-called 'liberal' countries (Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands) and Germany took position in favour of putting an end to export refunds.
With some degree of variation, most of the delegations supported the legislative proposal for a safety net of market management measures (public intervention, private storage, exceptional measures and export refunds) to allow farmers to resist excessive price volatility and market disturbances, and to rebalance the supply chain. (LC/transl.fl)