Brussels, 24/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - As announced, the Council, meeting on Friday 24 June, adopted, without debate, the regulation increasing the applicable quantitative limitations for the fixed-price buying-in of butter and skimmed milk powder (see EUROPE 11577).
The new intervention ceiling for butter will be 100,000 tonnes and the ceiling for skimmed milk powder will be 350,000 tonnes. Quantities bought as part of the tendering procedure (still open this week while awaiting adoption of the regulation) will not be deducted from these limitations.
Italy, while it does not oppose the regulation, has indicated that increasing the limitations “is not the right solution to be followed for solving the crisis in the milk sector”. Since September 2015, the measures put in place, in particular, those aimed at the public intervention, “have not been effective” in Italy's estimation.
Increasing quantitative limitation for buying in skimmed milk powder has been very expensive, has increased the quantities under storage and has delivered no results in terms of increasing in the milk prices, Italy argues. The real problem, it repeats, is the imbalance between milk supply and demand within the EU and it calls for the immediate implementation of appropriate voluntary measures aiming to support reduction of milk production: “moreover, the financial resources of the EU Budget should be dedicated to this priority”, it argues on this, a request shared by many other countries, including France, Germany and Poland. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)