Brussels, 06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - After a seminar organised last week on the future of the EU's dairy policy, the Co-ordination Paysanne Européenne (CPE) outlined its position on the future of the industry by opposing the scrapping of dairy quotas proposed by a number of governments and the dairy industry which aims to cut milk prices at producer level. The CPE is calling for management of production to remain a vital axis of the Common Agricultural Policy and a necessary condition to ensure an income-generating milk price; the maintenance of production in various regions; to prevent the "dumping" of milk lakes in third countries; the maintenance and extension of sustainable and low-input farming methods.
The CPE calls on the Council of the EU to abandon plans to increase quotas in 2005 as outlined in Agenda 2000. The CPE says the EU has milk lakes so there can be no reason (other than the industry's desire to cut prices) to increase milk production. The CPE argues that the price cutting policy is very expensive for the European taxpayer without being of benefit to the consumer and calls for an outlawing of premiums for quantity often given by dairies to the biggest milk producers since they favour a concentration of production. The CPE points out that the share of the agricultural budget devoted to milk has been falling for the last 10 years and accounts for less than EUR 3 billion a year, whereas arable and beef farming gobble up EUR 25 billion.