On Monday 27 April MEPs on the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee criticised some of the details of the new aid proposed by the European Commission to support the dairy and wine sectors.
On 22 April the Commission announced new aid to farmers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the package left MEPs discontented (see EUROPE 12474/18).
Anne Sander (EPP, France), rapporteur on the regulation of the common market organisation (CMO), and committee chair Norbert Lins (with the support of coordinators from most political groups) sent a letter to Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.
They expressed their reservations regarding certain provisions of the aid package.
The letter called for an update of the rules on aid for the private storage of cheeses to: - enable EU Member States to give priority to helping the most vulnerable operators and those most affected by the crisis; - open storage to cheeses in all their forms, including curd; - make the minimum storage duration more flexible, depending on the kind of cheese.
MEPs also called for temporary crisis measures and regulatory flexibilities to help the EU wine sector.
They would like to see additional European funds mobilised outside the Wine National Support Programmes for the wine sector.
They also called for the abolition of the rule that caps (at 15% of Wine National Support Programmes) possible aid for 'crisis distillation' of wines.
The European Parliament Agriculture Committee will discuss the aid package and possible additional measures with Commissioner Wojciechowski on Thursday 30 April.
To see the letter sent to Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski: https://bit.ly/2VFCJY7 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)