By Martin Banks - 17th September 2009
Today, we have demanded extensive measures, which will help milk farmers in their currently difficult situation
Albert Dess
MEPs in Strasbourg have backed a series of measures aimed at countering the crisis in the dairy farming sector.
They endorsed a resolution which urges the commission to adopt a package of short-term initiative aimed at supporting dairy producers whose product prices have dropped 40 per cent in three years at the same time as consumer prices have risen by 14 per cent.
They voted to approve measures to extend EU intervention for skimmed milk powder, butter and cheese.
Some members also criticised the role of supermarkets in the supply chain as posing a big part of the problem for European dairy farmers.
However, MEPs were split on some of the other major issues, namely the abolition of milk quotas, an EU market measure that the commission and member states maintain will be abolished in 2015.
Famous French farmer and newly-elected MEP José Bové accused the commission of having a "laissez faire" attitude to market regulation.
He spoke about instances of suicide among the farming community in his own constituency as a consequence of volatile prices in Europe.
He also argued that the EU should impose a safety net so that prices for farmers should never be below the cost of production.
UK MEP Richard Ashworth said he was in favour of the abolition of milk quotas yet urged caution on the idea of introducing a superlevy for individual farmers, which he argued would "send the wrong messages and would penalise efficient producers who are planning to stay in the industry in the long term".
Speaking during an often heated debate on Thursday, Alber Dess, EPP group spokesman on agricultural affairs, said, "Today, we have demanded extensive measures, which will help milk farmers in their currently difficult situation."
The outgoing EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fisher Boel agreed that producers are being unfairly treated and that farm businesses are suffering as a result.
While falling short of naming and shaming individual retailers, she pointed the finger at "German discount supermarkets" who she says are using milk as a "produit d'appel" and the "handing over the bill to farmers".
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