Brussels, 20/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The report and the experts' opinions commissioned by the European Commission to prepare the conference on the future of the dairy sector after 2015 underline the general way that tools foreseen as part of the milk package and reform of common agricultural policy (CAP) should allow the sustainability of farms to be guaranteed.
Experts' opinions show that the guarantee of income and the organisation of inter-professional channels are two provisions that should protect the European dairy industry from lapsing into crisis and open up new markets for it. Production should continue to grow and be focused on the most competitive regions. Adjustment measures should be envisaged to protect livestock farming in mountainous areas, where no other alternative exists.
There is no need to set new tools in place to protect the milk sector once production quotas have been abolished. That in essence is what is stated in reports requested by the Commission in preparation for the major conference on the future of milk production after 2015, to be held in Brussels on 24 September. By way of preparing for the conference, the European Commission has entrusted the audit firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) with carrying out a study on the situation in the milk sector. Six experts have also been called upon to give their vision of the way the European milk industry is evolving and to propose measures intended to maintain production in the less productive areas of the EU. They will set out the results of their findings at the conference (economic and territorial consequences of doing away with quotas). Other speakers from the sector will also present their points of view: COPA-COGECA, the European Milk Board (EMB) and the think-tank, Momagri. Speaking at a press conference, Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said he expected a “confrontation of ideas” (see EUROPE 10916). (LC/transl.jl)