Brussels, 18/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Six member states exceeded their milk quotas in 2011/2012 and, consequently, have had to pay “super-levy” penalties of about €79 million, according to Commission figures published on Thursday 18 October. Despite the fact that quotas had been exceeded in those six member states, total EU deliveries remained well below the global quota volume (-4.7%).
According to national declarations, Austria (excess of 120,653 tonnes, which represents a penalty of €33.6 million), Ireland (59,658 tonnes, €16.6 million), the Netherlands (59,074 tonnes, 16.4 million), Germany (37,363 tonnes, €10.3 million), Cyprus (3,463 tonnes, €964,000) and Luxembourg (1,525 tonnes, €424,000) exceeded their national delivery quotas by a total of 283,000 tonnes, despite the 1% rise in quotas during the year 2011/2012, as decided in the context of the common agricultural policy (CAP) “health check” in 2008. The Netherlands also exceeded its direct sales quota, while the other member states exceeded only their delivery quotas. The number of member states exceeding their quotas remains limited and the surplus production concerned accounts for less than 0.2% of all milk delivered or covered by direct sales. Several member states produced far below their respective national quota. Ten member states (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden) recorded deliveries at least 10% below their quota. The under-consumption in France is by way of 3.6%, and in Italy 0.4%. Over the quota year 2010/2011, penalties amounting to €55.6 million were triggered in five member states, and overall EU deliveries were 5.5% below the EU's total quota volume. (LC/transl.jl)