Brussels, 05/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU agriculture ministers, meeting on Friday 5 September, have recommended adoption of fresh measures to ease the effects of the Russian embargo on the import of EU agricultural products. The EU will consider targeted compensation for the farmers and sectors hardest hit and the Italian Presidency raised the possibility of drawing on EU funds other than agricultural, since the crisis only came about because of a “political and diplomatic conflict”, said Italian minister, Maurizio Martina.
European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos stated that the Commission would continue to monitor the market and to assess the impact of the measures taken (prices for the most severely affected products have stabilised to a certain extent). Every week, management committee meetings will be held to keep a close eye on the market situation and to prepare possible new measures for other products which could be affected (by which he meant citrus fruits, a request from Spain in particular). He also noted the request from the member states not to restrict himself to market measures but to take medium-term measures, too, to strengthen the EU's presence on foreign markets by means of promotional activities and by seeking, in trade negotiations, ways of removing some of the non-tariff barriers which restrict the access of European agri-food products to third country markets.
Targeted compensation. In addition to market stabilisation measures, the question was put of other measures that could come to the assistance of the producers most affected by the Russian import ban. Ciolos said that this was about “targeted compensation” designed to prevent viable businesses from going under and jobs from being lost. It had to be determined who was hardest hit, in which sector and in which country, said Ciolos, adding that this would depend on budgetary means available. Further, it would have to be seen how to share this burden with the member states through state aid, he said. Several countries, the United Kingdom excepted, backed the idea of targeted compensation. The considerable sum of €300 million made available in 2009 to the dairy sector has had no effect whatsoever at the individual level for farmers, noted Ciolos.
Drawing on other funds. Martina argued strongly that recovery of unused funds frim 2014 had to be investigated and that money had to be drawn from funds other than those of the common agricultural policy (CAP). The countries which gave their backing to the idea of using other funds were, in particular, Poland, some Baltic States, Belgium and Spain. France took the view that it might be possible to go beyond the agriculture budget, if necessary.
Some countries (France, the Baltic States and Finland) advocated triggering export refunds. Others, including Denmark and the Netherlands, are against such a move. The Commission is of the opinion that these are not the most appropriate instruments in this situation.
The Italian Presidency also spoke of the need for a coordinated response on state aid.
Ministers will again discuss the Russian embargo at their informal meeting in Milan on 28-30 September.
COPA-COGECA called on EU Farm Ministers and the EU Commission today urgently to introduce additional measures. COPA President Albert Jan Maat: - urged the commissioner to do everything in his power to encourage export promotion campaigns to stimulate new demand and find new market outlets for our produce; - argued that red tape needs to be cut and non-tariff barriers to trade tackled (for example, in the fruit and vegetable sector, phytosanitary barriers prevent the European fruit from entering the US market); - called on ministers to encourage the use of the EU school milk and fruit and vegetable schemes; - said that producers who do not belong to producer organisations (POs) must get the same amount of compensation for withdrawals as those belonging to producer organisations to ensure a level playing field; - stated that, in view of the serious market situation, producers need to be enabled to better manage supplies on the market, by fully utilising Article 222 of the EU regulation (derogation of competition rules).
Christian Pèes, COGECA President, argued that the list of dairy products eligible for temporary private storage aid should be enlarged and the period extended, as many products are simply not covered under current measures. He also called for the milk intervention price to be updated urgently to take account of rising production costs. Furthermore, he said, the list of fruit and vegetables eligible for withdrawal measures should be expanded to include for example citrus fruit. “The aid package worth €125 million for fruit and vegetable is not nearly enough to support the sector”, he affirmed, arguing that support must consequently not be financed only out of the CAP budget but also from other funds. He called, too, for promotion campaigns for pigmeat to be put in place. (LC)