The Chair of the European Parliament Agriculture Committee, Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany), said the measures announced on Wednesday 22 April to help the sector in the face of the coronavirus crisis were a step in the right direction, “but it is far from being enough”.
The European Commission accepts exceptional measures (derogation from competition rules) and aid for private storage (milk and meat). But, in the opinion of several MEPs, ministers and industry representatives, this mini-package will not be enough (see EUROPE 12472/5).
Nobert Lins added: “We understand that the EU budget is tight. But now is not the time to be frugal or to hesitate”, he told Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.
The French Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, insisted on the need to go further, by 30 April, “for the wine and horticultural sectors, which have been particularly affected”. He called for specific European support funds for flowers and for viticulture and alcoholic beverages, which are suffering greatly. “European solidarity must be able to take the form of exceptional direct aid”, Mr Guillaume added.
MEP Irène Tolleret (Renew Europe, France) considers the exceptional measures announced to be “insufficient”, since some agricultural sectors are seriously affected, such as “wine, fruit and vegetables, olive oil and horticulture”.
In particular, she regrets that the derogation on competition law for certain sectors (milk, flowers and potatoes) is not accompanied by financial support.
€80 million for private storage. At this stage, the Commission would provide around €80 million for private storage (€50 million for meat and €30 million for dairy products), far from the amounts made available in response to the Russian embargo on EU agricultural products (€500 million for fruit and vegetables and double that for milk).
Wine cooperatives in Italy, France and Spain are asking for funds for crisis distillation. They estimated the crisis distillation needs at €350 million to stabilise the market.
Can EU agriculture do without the 'agricultural crisis reserve' (€478 million)? Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) said the EU should have “the courage” to make this money “available to producers as soon as possible”. However, this crisis reserve has never been used, as it was built up by reducing the amount of direct aid by 1%.
In a letter sent on 22 April to the Commission, Copa-Cogeca asked the Commission to support potato producers via a budget outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds.
The European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) welcomed the proposed measures, but believes that “without stronger public support, we expect to see little uptake of the private storage aid and supply management flexibilities granted to private operators”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)