Luxembourg, 27/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - Hundreds of dairy farmers from Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg drove their tractors to the building where EU agriculture ministers were meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 27 October 2008, calling for “flexible market rules” to help them get “a fair price for milk” on the market. The European Milk Board (EMB), which organised the demonstration, wants EU ministers in their negotiations on the common agricultural policy's health check to take account of dairy farmers' demands. The EMB rejects the Commission's proposal for automatically increasing the quota by one per cent a year until 2013 (five percent in total). Instead, the EMB calls for the quota system to be made flexible. This means adjusting the production volume as of now to the real market needs. The yardstick for increasing or decreasing milk production must be a base producer milk price that covers the actual costs of production. The EMB says that the fund to help dairy farmers that some member states are calling for could not even partly compensate for the revenue lost as a result of the planned phasing out of quotas. Luxembourg's police counted nearly 200 tractors and between 150 and 300 demonstrators. Banners on the tractors had slogans like “Farming yes, for nothing no”, and “We demand a decent minimum price”. (L.C./transl.fl)