Brussels, 14/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Several member states are continuing to call for additional measures to help pork and milk producers affected by the Russian embargo on EU agri-food products. The subject was included on the agenda for the forthcoming Agriculture Council on 26 January.
On Monday, during the Special Committee on (SCA), experts examined the situation following the most recent measures taken by the European Commission (extension of the assistance programme for fruit and vegetables, aid for milk producers in Baltic countries and Finland, promotion measures).
Similarly to during the December Agriculture Council, Denmark, Hungary, France, Austria, Romania and Lithuania, etc., continued to call for the implementation of private storage measures for pork meat. Prices of this meat have fallen sharply over recent weeks. Germany and Finland, on the contrary, thought such measures pointless and that they needed to distinguish between the consequences of the Russian embargo and normal market developments. The Commission is still monitoring the situation and will decide whether intervention is necessary, even though it believes that private storage is not the solution to the current situation.
On the question of aid for “fruit and vegetables”, the countries involved (France, Spain, Cyprus) believe that the scope for applying the rules and quantities eligible are not sufficiently adapted. Countries less affected (Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovenia) have called for their concerns to be taken into account better.
Concerns about ending milk quotas. Several countries, such as France, Ireland, Hungary and Slovakia, expressed their concerns about the future for milk and milk product producers. They believe that the forthcoming termination of milk quotas (April 2015) will make the difficulties already perceptible in this sector worse (prices are now close to the intervention price and collection is increasing) and that the measures taken up until now to help producers are insufficient. (LC)