Brussels, 29/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament will vote in April or May on the own initiative report by James Nicholson (ECR, UK) on the milk and dairy products sector, which has been experiencing difficulty as a result of falling prices and the Russian embargo on EU agricultural products. The draft report will be discussed by the Parliament's agriculture committee in February.
This committee held a hearing on the milk sector on Tuesday 27 January with experts and representatives of agricultural organisations.
Nicholson stressed that we must learn to live without quotas, since, no matter one's personal view for or against, the decision has been taken and they will disappear at the end of March 2015.
Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) pointed out that the sector was in a period of difficulty: prices continuing to fall, production costs rising by 5% in 2014 when consumption is tumbling, and the Russian embargo which has reduced export opportunities. He argued for a system where supply can be managed, but without returning to quotas. Such a system would deliver a response by increasing the number of instruments which would allow farmers to manage a highly volatile market, he said.
The failure of the measures in the milk package is acknowledged, said Lidia Senra Rodriguez (GUE/NGL, Spain). She criticised the speaker from Copa-Cogeca who called for export aid instruments. “Public policies are needed, not to export but to orient production towards the internal market, and to keep in place production control systems so that producers receive decent prices”, she stated.
Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) said that there had to be discussion of quantities on the market. He called on Copa-Cogeca to recognise that its liberalisation policy (and that of the European Commission) “has been a failure”. “Market balance has, of course, to be recovered but financing it with taxpayers' money would be a 1970s policy”, he added. Quotas should not be brought back but we have to see what the limits of European production are and how to put the European market back on its feet “without depending on China or Russia”, he concluded. José Bové (Greens/EFA, France) predicted crisis by April and called for a system that ensures “management of volumes and prices”. Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium) said that the EU should change its strategy of decoupling direct aid.
John Stuart Agnew (EFDD, UK) showed interest in an export credits insurance system.
Something somewhere is not working properly, said Ricardo Serrao Santos (S&D, Portugal). He criticised the “rose tinted” view presented by the European Commission. He called for everyone in the supply chain to be involved and for consumers to be made aware of the situation (our translation throughout). (LC)