Brussels, 18/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 May in Brussels, EU Agriculture Ministers held another debate on the situation on the agricultural markets. This debate demonstrated that it was difficult to predict whether and when new measures will be proposed.
Several EU Agriculture Ministers said that the two consecutive support packages had not been enough to mitigate the effects of the crisis on the agricultural markets.
The Dutch Presidency of the Council explained that an “in-depth” debate would take place at the next formal Council on 27 June. Despite the lack of budgetary manoeuvre, decisions could possibly be made at this meeting. EU Agriculture Ministers will also discuss the situation on the markets during the informal meeting at the end of May in Amsterdam. The official theme of this debate is the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Crisis reserve. Given the constraints on the EU budget, some ministers mentioned the possibility of resorting to the reserve in the event of agricultural crises arising, so that they are able to mobilise additional funds, particularly for encouraging producers to reduce their milk production. Therefore, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Lithuania requested the possibility of using this crisis reserve, if necessary. This was not very popular among Agriculture Ministers because it is created by reducing the amount of direct aid. Therefore, Slovakia and Denmark rejected the use of the crisis reserve. Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Agriculture stated in a press conference on Tuesday that several countries in the EU, including Germany, believe that there is a point in discussing this issue. He also said that if member states wanted the reserve, he was prepared to consider it. The subject will be discussed during the Council on 27 June.
New fund. Italy called for Community funding to be released as part of the measure in Article 222 on voluntary reductions in production (see EUROPE 11552). Belgium also made this request. Mr Hogan said that it was "very difficult to find additional funds from the Commissioner for the Budget because there are still a lot of EU countries (13 states) that have not spent their envelope from last September" (targeted aid for tackling the agricultural crisis). The cut-off date for spending €420 million is 30 June 2016. Mr Hogan pointed out that countries could use state aid to compensate producers that reduce milk production and explained that at this stage, he was unaware of countries having already used the possibilities provided in Article 222 (the mechanism has been in force since 13 April).
Pig meat and fruit and vegetables. Commissioner Hogan made a brief reference to the markets and described the situation in the milk sector as still being fragile, although there had been a slight improvement in the pig meat sector (the market appears to be stabilising and there has been a general rise in exports) and for fruit and vegetable (apart from apples). Denmark and the United Kingdom asked for the aid mechanism on pig meat private storage to be reopened. The Commission is not opposed to this in principle but indicated that it would be monitoring the markets whilst waiting for the right time to resort to this measure.
With regard to the extension of the support programme for fruit and vegetable producers, the Commissioner explained that sector aid measures in response to the Russian embargo would enter into force in July. He did add, however, that the level of support and tonnage would not be very high because new outlets had been found.
Sweden requested early payments of CAP aid and the Commissioner said that he was prepared to discuss the subject in June. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)