 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| Milk price crisis: Agriculture Committee's first reactions to Commission plan |
| EK, 09.12.2010 |
|
| Committee: Agriculture and Rural Development Agriculture − 09-12-2010
The Commission's proposed regulation on contractual relations in the dairy market was generally welcomed by the Agriculture Committee on Thursday. However, MEPs also stressed the need to curb price volatility and worried that proposed ceilings on the size of producers' organisations were too low to enable them to improve farmers' negotiating power in the supply chain.
The key aims of the proposed regulation are to rebalance power in the food supply chain, prepare producers for the end of the milk quotas in 2015 and ensure medium-term prospects for EU dairy products, said Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, presenting the proposal to MEPs. The market can be made to work better, proposed Mr Ciolos, by facilitating the creation of producers' organisations better able to compete with food processing industry. However, these organisations should not represent more than 3.5% of EU production or 33% of national production, so as to prevent the creation of monopolies, he added.
The proposal, approved by the College of Commissioners on Thursday, also calls for greater transparency, through a reinforced "European observatory", involving Member States' representatives and stakeholders, to provide producers with up-to-date data on market trends, and enable them to make informed decisions. It also suggests creating inter-professional groups to encourage discussion among all players in the food supply chain. The proposed regulation would expire on 2020.
Curbing world market speculation
"The Commission is right in pointing out the problems industry is facing" said Parliament's rapporteur on the proposal James Nicholson (ECR, UK). Price volatility, is a key issue and "anything we can do to stabilise it is welcome", he stressed, referring specifically to speculation in the markets.
"Transparency should be enforced throughout the supply chain, including distribution", said Michel Dantin (EPP, FR), on behalf of his group. Mr Dantin also stressed the need for "real-world governance" to curb price volatility. For the S&D group, Marc Tarabella (BE), agreed that "the worst enemy of long-term investment is extreme price volatility". He proposed that the promotion of dairy products should be overhauled, since their consumption among children had fallen due to more appealing adverting of other kinds of goods, such as sodas.
Commissioner Ciolos replied that the market speculation issue would be tackled during the current French Presidency of the G20.
Producers' organisation ceilings too low?
To help the EU dairy market, it is necessary to "make sure contracts are respected and sharp practices avoided" said George Lyon (ALDE, UK) proposing that national bodies be set up with the power to intervene in cases where negotiated terms are breached. "The last thing we want is a disrupted single market', he added.
The proposed regulation is "a small step for milk producers" which "goes in the right direction, but not far enough", said Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, DE). He felt that the proposed limits on the size of producers organisations (to account for no more than 3.5% of EU output or 33% of national output) might be too low to rebalance their negotiating power. Lorenzo Fontana (EFD, IT), echoed these doubts, wondering "are these figures sufficient to allow our producers to survive?" The "free market should not force producers to close down", he added.
Finally, Committee chair Paolo De Castro (S&D, IT) called on the Commissioner to include in the dairy market legislation a definition of the role of geographical indication owners’ consortia in managing production volumes, as asked by Parliament in its resolution of March 2010.
Committee on agriculture and rural development
In the chair: Paolo de Castro (S&D, IT)
Procedure: codecision
Rapporteur: James Nicholson (ECR, UK)
Vote in committee: May 2011 (tbc)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Address : Euro-Brew Ltd., Hlboká 22, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
Tel. : +421 33 53 418 53, Fax : +421 33 53 418 52, E-mail : info@eurobrew.sk |
|
|
