Luxembourg, 14/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Fernand Etgen, the president-in-exercise of the Agriculture Council, said in Luxembourg on Monday 14 September that decisions were needed from the European ministers the very next day, because “the sector is waiting for answers” to the crisis and the provisional €500 million set aside still have to be approved ahead of the amending letter of mid-October (on updating the agricultural expenditure).
This Tuesday, the European agriculture ministers are discussing the package of measures to support producers of milk and pork meat. This package is made up of measures to respond to farmers' immediate needs and longer-term measures, notably to strengthen the farmers' position within the food chain.
On a visit to farms in northern Luxembourg, Fernand Etgen stressed that a number of subjects under the aid package were still outstanding following the Council meeting of 7 September, particularly the details for the early payment of direct aid and the national envelopes for each country. Amongst other things, Etgen is expecting the Commission to announce how much money will be in each country's envelope this Tuesday. He said that the criteria would include a percentage for the dairy sector and a (considerably lower) percentage for the pork sector.
A higher intervention price in the milk sector, calls for which are led by France, is still a potential area, the Luxembourg minister said. However, the Spanish minister, Isabel Garcia Tejerina, for instance, intimated that the Commission was not a fan of such a step. A number of countries are also against it and reiterated this on Monday: these include Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The Finnish minister, Kimmo Tiilikainen, also told a small group of journalists that he was opposed to increasing the intervention price. “It won't help at the moment “. His aim (and that of the Baltic states) is to secure recognition, in the individual country envelopes (and therefore in the targeted aid available), of the fact that his country has been hard hit by the Russian ban on EU agricultural products.
Farmers who are members of the EMB (European Milk Board) took to the streets of Luxembourg to demonstrate during the visit of the European ministers (preventing their visits from going as planned, by blocking roads), calling for: - regulation of the dairy market; - an upper limit on European milk production; - the payment of the €500 million set aside in favour of farmers who have agreed to cut production to get prices moving upwards again. Farmers will be demonstrating in Luxembourg on Tuesday, close to where the EU agriculture ministers are meeting. (Lionel Changeur)