Brussels, 14/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission explained that the estimated amount of additional levies that some Member States will have to recover from their milk producers for exceeding their delivery quotas (117 million tonnes for the whole of the EU) totals EUR 289 million for the marketing year 2000-01. These fines will be deducted from the Commission's regular agriculture payments to the Member States. As for the quota of 1.3 million tonnes for direct sales to consumers in the whole of the Community, only the Netherlands reported a minor overrun (12 tonnes).
The figures show that the year 2000/01 was marked by a sharp decrease in the milk quota overrun since the additional levies amounted to EUR 380 million in 1999/2000. Italy has been penalised the most with a level of EUR 142 million (overrunning its delivery quotas by 398,000 tonnes), followed by Germany (EUR 89 million for an overrun of 250,000 tonnes), Austria (EUR 36 million for an overrun of 101,000 tonnes), Finland (EUR 9 million for an overrun of 25,000 tonnes), Denmark (EUR 6 million for an overrun of 17,000 tonnes), Greece (EUR 5.6 million for an overrun of 15,000 tonnes) and Luxembourg (EUR 285,000 for an overrun of 800 tonnes). The Commission still has to decide on Portugal (overrun of 8,000 tonnes) since it has not yet presented data for milk deliveries and sale in the Azores. As was decided by EU heads of state at the Nice Summit in December 2000, an exemption on the additional levy for 73,000 tonnes of milk produced in the Azores has been granted (see EUROPE of 16 March). The decision exempted 73,000 tonnes of milk - the total amount consumed on the Azores (3.86% of the Portuguese quota) - from the total quantity of milk in the quota. The above-mentioned eight countries exceeded their quotas by a total of 818,490 tonnes.
The other seven Member States (Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and Sweden) have not used up their production quotas and therefore do not have to pay an additional levy. Taking into account the unused quantities in these seven states, the Commission notes that the total surplus only amounts to 40,000 tonnes for the 2000/01 period compared to 1,008,00 tonnes in 1999/2000. The Commission reported that in five years, the number of active milk producers within the European Union has decreased from 858,000 (1996/1997) to 642,000, but the average individual quota for deliveries has increased from 134 tonnes to 163 tonnes.