Strasbourg, 06/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 5 September, the European Parliament approved (with a few adjustments) the proposals for simplifying the rules for the Common Market Organisation (CMO) for milk and milk products. The vote was a simple formality given that no amendment was introduced to the three reports of Elisabeth Jeggle (EPP-ED, Germany) adopted on 17 July by the members of the EP agriculture committee.
The EP is raising the amount of aid from €16.11/100kg to €18.15/100kg to distribute milk in schools. In opposition to what the Commission wanted, it is now possible to pay aid for private stocks of cream and fat-free milk powder (report details in EUROPE 9471). The European Parliament is calling for the setting up of a restructuring programme to: help producers and processors cope with the growing liberalisation of the market; upgrade sales promotion measures and the dissemination of nutritional information; maintain and modernise production in mountainous regions; and strengthen the school milk distribution scheme.
During the debate the day before, the commissioner for agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel said that she was “surprised” by the amendment to keep subsidies for private stocks of cream and fat-free milk powder, in the knowledge that these measures “in practice have never been used and can be considered obsolete. Furthermore, private storage for butter is maintained so there is really no need to maintain the scheme for cream”.
The commissioner said that she was on the same wavelength as the EP on single aid for milk distribution in schools, and said that she hoped that a compromise could be found between the three institutions on increasing this aid to the level proposed by the plenary. The Commission is currently unable to agree to the demands of the EP on the restructuring programme for the milk sector because “discussions on the need for appropriate measures for the milk sector should rather be held in the framework of the up-coming health check of the Common Agricultural Policy”.
During the debate the previous day, several MEPs said that they were worried by the current milk shortage in the EU. According to the PES group, this shortage will lead to an increase in milk prices in addition to increases in other staple food-stuffs (cereals and meat). Fischer Boel was keen to keep things in perspective and promised to review the subject when the CAP was given its bill of health. She confirmed the possibility of seeing an increase in production quotas before 2015, a date on which the quotas must expire. (lc)