Brussels, 04/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - At the Agriculture Council of Friday 5 September, several countries - including the Baltic States, Poland, Cyprus, Greece and Spain - will call on the European Commission to take additional measures to help European producers affected by the Russian ban (see EUROPE 11146). This emerged in the preparatory discussions held within the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), which brings together the agricultural experts of the EU on Tuesday 2 September.
The countries and sectors hardest hit by the Russian ban on EU agricultural products are: Lithuania (dairy products, pork, fruit and vegetables), Latvia (fruit and vegetables, dairy products), Estonia (dairy products), Cyprus (citrus fruit, culinary herbs, fisheries/fish farming products), Finland (dairy products), Poland (apples, tomatoes, cabbages, peppers), Belgium (pears, garden produce, frozen potatoes, dairy products, meat), Spain (fruit and vegetables), Greece (fruit and vegetables, cheese), United Kingdom (fisheries products/mackerel) and Denmark (dairy products, fruit and vegetables, meat).
At the meeting of the SCA, several delegations (Portugal, Ireland, Finland, the Baltic States and others) expressed the view that the only possible response to the Russian ban must be European. A number of countries (Baltic States, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Finland) feel that the initial measures taken by the Commission were swift and very welcome, but insufficient as their scope of application is still not properly adapted and they do not do enough to target the sectors and regions which have been most affected. Several delegations (notably Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom) stressed the need to respect the budgetary framework, even in a time of crisis. Certain countries, such as Cyprus and Lithuania, implicitly stressed on the other hand that they would argue for the EU budget to compensate producers to be increased.
Some countries, among them Denmark, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Lithuania, said that they were already working to identify new outlets for their products affected by the ban. This follows the same lines as the Commission's announcement of increased focus on promotion measures. Several countries (Ireland, Spain and Belgium, amongst others) stressed that the promotion programmes constitute not immediate measures, but medium- or long-term initiatives. Cyprus and Ireland said that it would be very hard to win the Russian market back once the embargo has been lifted, as operators from other parts of the world could well replace EU operators.
As regards milk and dairy products, many countries (including Ireland, Greece, the United Kingdom, France and Germany) expressed concerns at the possibility that the Russian ban could lead to a crisis in this sector and called for a very close eye to be kept on the situation. The countries which have been the hardest hit by the ban on milk and dairy products, the Baltic States, Finland and Poland, have already seen considerable drops in price, which could even fall as low as intervention level. Against this backdrop, a number of delegations (including Poland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia) once again called for the fat content coefficient to be adjusted in order to avoid the super-levy (fine payable in the event of dairy quota overrun). These countries argue that, with a looming crisis in the sector, more should be done to avoid punishing the producers. France notably (once again) opposed any increase in dairy quotas. A handful of countries (including Lithuania and Finland) called for the intervention price for milk to be revised and some, such as Poland and Estonia, argued in favour of export refunds.
For meat, the Commission noted that the situation was less clear but, above all, less urgent: EU exports of poultry to Russia are low and a ban on pork (for sanitary reasons) came in at the start of the year. As regards beef and veal, although exports to Russia are high in percentage terms, no real impact of the ban on market prices has been observed at the moment, the Commission says.
Beyond the market measures already taken, the Commission talked of: - promotion measures, with a possible new distribution of funds; - aid to the most deprived; - income stabilisation measures for producers (in the framework of rural development); - increased consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk in schools; - the option of using coupled payments in severely affected regions or sectors; - the possibility of state aid (de minimis rule); - compensation measures for farmers affected by the ban.
According to the Commission, measures affecting direct aid would really be a long-term tool and would not be the best option in an emergency situation.
MEPs call for additional measures
During a debate at the European Parliament committee on agricultural on Thursday 4 September, most of the MEPs welcomed the initial emergency measures taken by the Commission, but called for additional measures to support the hardest-hit producers.
Joost Korte, Deputy Director General at the European Commission with responsibility for agricultural market and direct support policy, said that, although the measures already taken up are proving not to be up to the task at hand, “we can do more if needs be”. Citrus fruit is not yet covered by the emergency measures in favour of perishable fruit and vegetables (aid envelope of €125 million), as these are harvested later, “but we are not ruling out the possibility of acting on these products”. Some MEPs called for certain cabbages to be covered, and the Commission is also prepared to look into this if required. As regards private storage, “we have to see how the system is working; we will do more if it is not working”, Korte said.
As regards milk, a number of MEPs called for the intervention price level to be reviewed or for dairy quotas to be increased. The Commission pointed out that dairy quotas will end in March 2015 as laid down in the legislation and that there had not been sufficient political support at the last Agriculture Council for amending the fat content coefficient of milk. “It seems illogical to call for quotas to be increased when the market is oversupplied with milk”, the Commission representative commented.
Who is going to pay for it all? The question is a difficult one, the Commission said. The measures taken are to be paid for out of the existing CAP (common agriculture policy) budget, but the Commission has not yet decided to tap into the agricultural crisis reserve (around €400 million a year). The countries are set to start sending their first invoices in after October and they will be paid out of the EU budget for 2015. However, it is not until the very end of 2014 that the level of this budget will be decided upon.
In a letter to European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, French MEPs in the EPP Group stressed the need to increase the budget for aid to fruit and vegetables, to extend the compensation measure to new crisis management measures, and to act in favour of the other sectors affected, particularly the meat sector. (LC)