On Wednesday 12 June, the European Milk Board (EMB) called on the new MEPs elected on 9 June to take measures to guarantee farmers “fair prices and a fair income“ and thus “put an end to the social and economic exclusion” of this profession.
The measures recommended by the EMB include: - a crisis instrument with an automatic trigger, such as voluntary supply reduction (based on the market responsibility programme model); - effective contractual clauses at European level; - European regulations that make it compulsory for farmers’ selling prices to be higher than their production costs (total production costs including an adjusted income); - mirror clauses for products imported into the EU.
The EMB is also calling for action to generate an adequate income from the market rather than from subsidy spending, and for agriculture to be removed from free trade agreements with third countries. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)