Brussels, 06/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Agriculture Council of June will debate a sensitive report on the milk and dairy products sector.
“When the milk package was adopted in December 2012, I undertook to present a report in mid-2014 on how this package has been implemented and how to improve it”, said Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, on the sidelines of the informal Council of European agriculture ministers, in Athens on Monday 5 May (our translation).
This report will feature no new legislative proposals, Ciolos clarified. He wants a discussion on this subject within the Council to see whether the countries of the EU would like new instruments. “But we are aware that the Council is divided” over the measures to be taken when milk quotas come to an end in 2015. The commissioner's idea is apparently to set a toolbox in place in the very near future, when market conditions are good, in order to anticipate any problems. “Let us be quite clear, it is not about managing quantities, but for example about seeing how we can use the new dairy market observatory to anticipate issues”, he said. The objective is to provide the producers with the information they need to facilitate their decision-making, to help them to negotiate contracts and to prepare the countries of the EU for any crises which may arise. For example, anyone wishing to produce more could be encouraged to do so on the basis of market requirements, the commissioner suggested.
Crisis management tools exist
Ciolos said that the tools to manage crises exist (public intervention, private storage aid and refunds in the event of crisis), but that these could be made less bureaucratic and more effective in order to anticipate problems. The Commissioner listed the other tools already available: direct payments, pooling funds and crisis reserve.
On the subject of the super-levy, which was discussed at the last Agriculture Council (see EUROPE 11061), Ciolos said that the super-levy system (fines in the event of exceeding milk quotas) would be applied to the growing year 2014-2015, as stated by the legal services of the Council and the Commission. On the question of the fat content coefficient (several countries are calling for this coefficient to be amended, which would effectively mean increasing the level of the quotas), Ciolos said that this will be discussed at the June Council. “But we have seen that the Council is very much divided over the question”, the commissioner pointed out. He explained that he feels it would be wrong to penalise farmers who have stuck to the rules and the quotas, and that penalising those who have simply expanded production, having identified possible market opportunities, is a better alternative.
This will be the job of the next European Parliament, which will be renewed the end of May, and of the next Commission, which will be replaced late this year or early next. It will be the job of another commissioner… or maybe not. Ciolos makes no secret of his desire for a second term of office.
Transatlantic negotiations. In the framework of the bilateral agreement with the United States, the commissioner said that the EU saw possibilities of increasing its exports of quality cheese to North America. For agriculture, one of the major issues of these bilateral negotiations will be getting the USA to recognise the geographical indications of the EU. Other issues of importance for the EU include food safety (hormones, GMOs, products rejected by the EU). “There will be no give on our side on market access until the United States comes to the table with a more serious approach” to these three issues, Ciolos warned. (LC)