Brussels, 30/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission said on Thursday 30 July that it was finalising the last details on safety net measures for the European dairy, fruit and vegetables sectors, hit by the Russian ban on the import of EU agri-food products.
The Commission has not, at this stage, announced new measures to ease the current crisis in the livestock sector (which includes the dairy sector), despite the demonstrations that have been taking place in France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and Germany. The livestock sector situation will be discussed by European agriculture ministers at their special meeting on 7 September (see other article).
In a press release, the Commission said it was “aware” of the challenges faced by European producers and of the need to help them. For the fruit and vegetables sector, the planned measures may enter into force as early as next week while, for the dairy sector, they will be in place as of 1 October. There are no surprises among these measures, already announced by Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan at the Council on 13 July.
“The significant actions taken to date by the European Union have demonstrated the solidarity of the EU with farmers most affected by the Russian ban. These actions also played an important part in mitigating the effects of the ban. Now, almost a year later, with the ban prolonged, we need to continue to provide a safety net in order to give security to producers who continue to face difficulties in relation to the ban”, said Hogan.
Dairy. The measures consist of public buying-in (intervention) and private storage aid for both butter and skimmed milk powder. These measures are currently in place and, without such an extension, would come to an end on 30 September 2015. Intervention will be prolonged from 1 October 2015 to 29 February 2016 in order to avoid any discontinuation in its operation (for dairy products, intervention is systematically open every year from 1 March to 30 September). Private storage (for which no automatic opening applies) will also be prolonged until 29 February 2016.
Fruit and vegetables. The Commission proposes to extend until 30 June 2016 the measures that ended on 30 June 2015, covering the main groups of fruit and vegetables (including peaches and nectarines) affected by the Russia ban. These measures consist in withdrawals of produce for free distribution of fruit and vegetables to charitable organisations and withdrawals of products for other purposes (such as animal feed, composting, distillation), as well as the so-called “non-harvesting” and “green harvesting'” measures. Quantities (in tonnes) will be allocated to those member states that have exported significant quantities to Russia over the past three years. In addition, an additional quantity not exceeding 3,000 tonnes may be withdrawn from the market in all member states in order to further stabilise the market, the Commission states. (Lionel Changeur)