Brussels, 10/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The member states of the EU are currently carrying out intensive discussions over the measures to be taken to prepare the sector for the end of milk production quotas.
There is, at least, consensus on one thing: the tools available to the public authorities to face crises are sufficient. But it is how they are used which has split the crowd.
In the run-up to the abolition of milk production quotas in 2015, two large groups of member states continue to disagree on the measures to be taken - or not - to adapt the sector to this new situation. The agriculture ministers of the countries of the EU will hold a debate on this theme at their ministerial meeting on 16 June, to be informed by a report by the European Commission on the impact of the implementation of the common agriculture policy (CAP) health check on the sector.
On the one hand, some member states want to end quotas early and see no need to increase the arsenal of tools in place. In the opposite corner, other member states want to use the instruments available to them to prepare a battery of graduated responses on the basis of market crisis situations.
At a meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on 2 June, France presented a document proposing areas for work to be carried out on the future of the dairy sector, once production quotas have been phased out. The sector will face two challenges: maintaining herds in less-favoured regions and market fluctuations. For this, in the framework of the newly-created European Milk Market Observatory, it will be important to have visibility on the margins of the various players in the sector, according to France. On the basis of these data, France is proposing to define various levels of crisis, with an associated raft of tools for each level to face any kind of situation: public storage, reinforcement of the role of the producer organisations, promotion, counter-cyclical payments, refunds and increased responsibility of the players. In detail, there is a proposal to determine early-warning and risk-prevention mechanisms in order to ensure the responsibility of the operators, define various levels of “crisis”, on the basis of criteria and indicators identified by the European Observatory, particularly when sudden drops in the level of producers' margins are flagged up, and, lastly, to indicate the relevant tools and conditions for these to be used, for each type and level of crisis.
Spain presented a very similar document, emphasising the need to take account of the importance of dairy production in terms of regional balance.
Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark, however, stressed their refusal to accept the notion of automatically triggering management tools in the event of crises in the sector.
The fat content coefficient could still be revised
Spain also took position in favour of a revision of fat content coefficients, in order to limit the super-levy to be imposed on member states which exceed their production quotas. Austria has been trying to convince its partners of the need for a measure of this kind for months. Vienna submitted a further note to the Council, once again stressing the need for a “soft landing”. As usual, it had the backing of Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark. On this point, the European Commission pointed out that the EU countries must agree, by the end of June, on whether an adjustment of the fat content coefficient is desirable. If this agreement is not forthcoming, it would be too far into the milk production year for the Commission to be able to intervene. (LC)