Brussels, 12/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Greek Presidency hopes that the Agriculture Council to be held on Monday 16 June will be able to adopt conclusions on the future of the milk and dairy products sector, but this is far from certain. The member states have differing opinions over the justification for these conclusions and the details of a “soft landing”, by means of measures to attenuate the efforts of the end of production quotas in 2015 (see EUROPE 11097).
To feed into the Agriculture Council's discussions, the European Commission is to present a report on the implementation of the milk package, which it is to adopt this Friday 13 June.
At the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) of Tuesday 10 June, a number of delegations (among them Austria, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands) welcomed the paragraph of the draft conclusions prepared by the Presidency providing for a soft landing by means of changes to the fat content coefficient. Other countries (including France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal and the Czech Republic), in the opposite corner, do not support this measure, which is tantamount to increasing production quotas . They take the view that this is a “fraud premium” and that it will disadvantage producers who have stuck to their quotas.
Against this backdrop, certain countries, such as Spain, have expressed surprise at the imbalance contained within these conclusions: what has been provided for producers who have stuck to the rules? Whatever the case may be, there are countries such as Italy and France which believe that Council conclusions on the subject are entirely premature.
A handful of countries, such as the United Kingdom and Sweden, take the view that the suggested wording is not very positive and would like the text better to reflect the measures which already exist in support of the sector.
In the absence of consensus on the text of the conclusions, the text becomes Presidency conclusions, rather than Council ones. In order for them to be Council conclusions, the Greek Presidency would have to present a very general text in order for all countries to get behind it.
Amongst other things, the draft text stresses that the end of quotas will offer the European sector opportunities, but will also face it with new challenges, such as the need to ensure balanced production at regional level within the EU (particularly in areas of specific constraints, such as island or mountainous regions) and to counter any market fluctuations. In addition, the dairy sector has seen increased volatility in milk prices and input prices for several years.
The text of the conclusions also calls for an examination of the possibility of appropriate measures to ensure legal security for all stakeholders as regards the application of the levy on surpluses after 31 March 2015. (LC)