Brussels, 23/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - How can the sharp fall in milk prices be stemmed and producers reassured? During the European Parliament's agriculture committee debate on Tuesday 21 July, MEPs and representatives from sector organisations judged, for the most part, the measures taken by the European Commission as insufficient. Many MEPs called for a readjustment in quota policy.
The president of the EP's agriculture committee, Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) declared at the end of the debate: “We all agree on the fact that the current proposals are insufficient”. The agriculture committee is expected to submit an own initiative report to the plenary on the situation in the milk sector. On 1 September, the agriculture committee will meet and ask Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fisher-Boel questions on this theme.
Albert Dess (EPP, Germany) said that the Commission's proposals “are likely to lead to a rapid crash in the sector rather than a soft landing”. He called on the Commission to propose a reduction or suspension in the planned 1% increase a year in production quotas. Dess regretted that the measures announced in the Commission's report are just a drop in the ocean. He suggested that the EU put more emphasis on milk and milk product export promotion. Mr Dess concluded that “supply and demand must be readjusted, and efficient measures are needed to reduce milk production…Financial aid - €90 million in the European recovery package, as well as the €350 million - are necessary to help the milk sector and milk products”.
Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos (S&D, Portugal) declared: “During the common agricultural policy health check, it became obvious that the Commission was moving to increasing liberalisation of the sector whereas certain signals were already indicating a reversal in this trend”. The MEP said that so far, the Commission was “only proposing palliative care when exceptional measures are in fact necessary”.
George Lyon (ALDE, United Kingdom) said he agreed with the European Commission's proposals and encouraged the institution to go further by promoting, for example, greater market transparency. He also indicated that supermarkets were accumulating sizable profits that should also be enjoyed by the producers. This point of view was shared by James Nicholson (ECR, United Kingdom), who affirmed that something was amiss in the distribution structure. Nicholson criticised the European Commission for not having grasped the urgency of the situation, given the evidence of price dumping. He also underlined the problem of the squeeze on credit.
Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) said that the proposals put forward by the Commission are a “return to the 1980s”. He expressed astonishment that the Commission had produced such a shabby report and called for a cut in quotas until market balance was restored, as well as an end to export refunds which “export the crisis to other markets”.
Häusling asserted that “liberalisation had been a mistake” and they had to “return to good sense”.
The vice president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Stéphane Le Foll from France, called on the Commission and member states to take two urgent measures: - overturn the “un-thought out” decision made during the CAP health check of increasing milk production by a few percentage points in view of abandoning milk quotas in 2015; - adopt measures to tackle the current situation that complement the market management measures that have already been taken and which proved ineffective in increasing prices.
During the debate, Gerd Sonnleitner, the vice president of COPA (European Farmers), indicated that “one out of two farmers is a milk producer and is subsequently being affected by the collapse in prices”. He highlighted the problem of the “disparity between production and consumer prices” and called for export refunds and buying up quotas from farmers taking retirement.
Romuald Schaber, the president of the European Milk Board (EMB), described the situation of falling prices as “dramatic” and accused the European Union of being responsible for it due to its policy of increasing quotas. He called for a freeze of at lease 5% in quotas in order to “encourage farmers to produce less”.
Xavier Delwarte from Via Campesina said that the crisis would “lead to social and regional disaster” if the Union did not reverse its current policy. He called for a cut in production (except for small producers), maintaining quotas (after 2015), ensuring minimum milk purchasing prices and ending export refunds and protection from imports from low price third countries. Delwarte also called for more autonomous production to be encouraged, with less soya and more local produce. L.C./transl.rh)