Brussels, 24/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - The management committee, which brings together European Union representatives, gave a favourable opinion late afternoon on Thursday 23 July to two proposals which form part of the Commission's package of measures to help stabilise the dairy market. The first, which came as no surprise as it had already been announced by the European Commission during the last Agriculture Council (EUROPE 9941), is to temporarily extend beyond 31 August the period for intervention purchases of butter and skimmed milk powder. This means that, for now, the emergency measure will give market support continuing until the end of November. The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament need a little time to adopt the Commission's formal proposal which, we recall, aims to main intervention until the end of February 2010.
The second measure, slightly less expected and which should mainly help Italian producers, is to abolish the minimum price (€230/100kg) at which cheeses qualify for an export refund. This will allow more cheese varieties to benefit from export funds, promoting exports and reducing European market surpluses. After considerable rises in recent years, European cheese exports fell by 7.8% to 1.46 million tonnes in 2008 and the decline, according to Commission figures, is more than 12% during the first nine months of 2009.
The Commission has still to formally adopt these two measures (intervention and cheeses). (L.C./transl.jl)