Good first step for European farmers

The Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan presented a package of measures to support European farmers with cash-flow difficulties and to stabilise markets and the functioning of the supply chain. The EPP Group welcomes the Commission's proposal to provide all Member States with fast and fair support for the in-crisis dairy sector. "It is a good first step, but the details of the package need to be worked out soon," indicated Czesław Adam Siekierski MEP, Chair of the Agriculture Committee and Albert Deβ MEP, EPP Group Spokesman on agriculture.

"The package is a strong signal of European support for minimalising the difficulties currently faced by farmers in the dairy and pigmeat sectors. But it remains unclear how the extra money should be treated. How much money will each country receive and how should it be distributed? This will be an important sticking point; the Commission must propose a robust distribution system for national governments over the coming days," said Albert Deβ.

"It is important that the funds for this extraordinary support come from outside the agriculture budget and that the emergency reserve, created yearly by the reduction of direct payments, remains untouched. These funds will therefore offer extra money for the agricultural sector. The lack of proper separation of funds for farmers touched by drought is the biggest weakness of this proposed support mechanism. What has been proposed is insufficient. Significant support for the storage of powdered milk, cheese and pigmeat is a good option because it creates certain stocks that can be used when the situation in global markets improves, as expected," Czesław Adam Siekirski added.