Brussels, 24 January 2013

Yesterday the members of the European Parliament's Agricultural Committee voted on the report on the reform of the Common organisation of agricultural markets in the EU. The Committee voted in favour of proposals such as the introduction of a voluntary supply constraint mechanism or the setting up of a European Food Price Monitoring Tool. But unfortunately members of cooperatives will still not be able to claim information on the milk price before delivery. Moreover, the insufficient pooling limits for producer organisations (3,5 % on European and 33 % on national level) were confirmed.

After the vote, Romuald Schaber, President of the European Milk Board (EMB), the European umbrella organisation of milk producers' associations, stated: "Although a few promising thoughts like a voluntary supply constraint were adopted, the Committee did not grasp the opportunity to take decisive steps towards limiting the overproduction on European milk markets. In order to do this, it would have been necessary to put in place permanent and flexible mechanisms to regulate the market, like for example a European Monitoring Agency. This is the only way to guarantee milk producers a decent income in the future, thanks to cost-covering milk prices. A mere monitoring of the market without an active regulation of produced volumes by the European Food Price Monitoring Tool is not enough."

Milk producers in Europe now hope that the vote in the European Parliament's plenary session scheduled for March 2013 will bring a turn in the right direction.