Brussels, 06/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a press release published on Friday 3 April, the European coordination of the movement Via Campesina states that the European dairy crisis caused by bad decisions in recent years, particularly those made by the EU since 2003, could cause a "social disaster in rural areas" if the following measures are not immediately taken on the management and level of production, prices and distribution.
The organisation is calling for: - a cut in production, by scrapping of the 1% increase in quota for this year and reviewing the one scheduled for a few years' time. "The EU must go beyond this, and sufficiently reduce the European quota"; - the launch of a debate on the details of this reduction in production. If the EU hopes to keep in place the maximum number of producers, the drop in production must be differentiated. Small producers must not be obliged to accept a reduction in production; - keeping in place public management of production. The producers must mobilise to force the EU to go back on its decision of 2003 to abandon quotas in 2015; - sufficient revenue to be guaranteed for all milk producers (better division of the quota, creation of a minimum purchase price by dairies to cover costs); - export refunds to be scrapped, as these constitute the "most visible form of dumping on third countries"; over-intensive soya-based milk production to be discouraged and local fodder- and permanent pasture-based milk production to be promoted instead (climate, biodiversity) and the most autonomous production methods to be supported; - a new dairy policy developed, with a view to 2013, within a CAP (common agricultural policy) in which the framework of the WTO is replaced by that of sovereignty, which is vital if the EU is to respond to the challenges of the current systemic crisis (http://www.eurovia.org ). (L.C./trans.fl)