The European Commission's current financial proposals give rise to fears that European cohesion will lose strength. If, in future, the agricultural budget must compete with other sectors and if Member States decide in a dominant and individual manner how, for example, environmental services and funds for rural development are distributed nationally, the EU risks becoming a European patchwork. This would lead to increasing inequalities and uncertainty, especially for farmers.

As long as producers are unable to cover their costs through fair framework conditions on the market, they will be the main losers of such a financial reorganisation. The European Milk Board (EMB) has always called for these fair market conditions to be created politically. Especially in view of the new financial proposals, the EMB reiterates this demand.

The European Commission’s approach to the Common Market Organisation reform so far is a start – but only if these proposals are not watered down. But they must go further. European milk producers still expect a great deal from the European Commission, the Council and the Parliament when it comes to obligatory contracts for cooperatives, the implementation of a crisis instrument such as the Market Responsibility Programme, mandatory cost coverage via prices on the market and the strengthening of producer groups through significantly higher bundling limits. 

European citizens need a common agricultural policy to ensure food sovereignty and sustainability in the Union. A strong, common and fair market framework is essential for this. Watering down with exceptions and fragmentation by handing over to national decision-makers would have the opposite effect and weaken the Union. It is time for a common, European solution that strengthens the position of all farmers and society as a whole.