Brussels, 22/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting on Friday 19 February in Brussels, farmers and agricultural cooperatives' representatives from all over Europe highlighted the “drastic” situation affecting EU agricultural markets and presented the Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, with a list of measures to improve the situation.
Martin Merrild, the president of the Copa, said that prices are rock bottom, particularly in the milk, pork meat, fruit and vegetables, bovine meat and cereal sectors. He emphasised that “There are not enough tools in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to address this” and deplored the fact that they had lost their main export market, Russia, practically overnight, which is worth €5.1 billion. He also said that their input prices also remain very high, especially fertilizer costs. Some of the solutions he advocated include reopening up the Russian market; introducing export credits, similarly to those used by other countries to promote exports, as well as a more aggressive European Investment Bank (EIB) policy on debt relief.
Cogeca President Thomas Magnusson welcomed EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogans' international trade missions to promote EU products internationally and to open new markets but pointed out that “this takes time to develop and to have an impact”. Agricultural organisations are also calling for a downward revision in intervention prices in the milk and milk products sectors.
At the end of the working dinner on 15 February in Brussels, Phil Hogan called on member states to submit their “ideas” by 25 February on “new and innovative ways” of stemming the current crisis (see EUROPE 11490). On 25 February, he will also be travelling to Paris for meetings with the French Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture. The proposals that result from the contributions and consultations will then be pooled together by the Dutch Presidency of the Council, in view of the Agriculture Council on 14 March, which is expected to make a number of decisions in this connection. On 7 March, the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will examine this dossier in an effort to prepare for the ministerial meeting. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)