Phil Hogan, Member of the Commission.  Madam President, I want to
again thank Mr Nicholson as rapporteur of this report and to thank all the
contributors to this debate. I want to acknowledge that there are challenges
arising from changes in policy, but also that in the market place there is
considerable volatility, and that has been acknowledged by me and indeed
other speakers in this debate. So we are as one in terms of acknowledging
that there are challenges in that area at the moment.
But there are many tools that I have outlined in my contribution earlier, that
have been used to cushion incomes for dairy producers. And one of the ones
I mentioned was the voluntary coupled support, where EUR 820 million has
been spent, and is being spent over the next few years, in helping dairy
producers in 19 Member States. I will give you some examples in terms of
how it is impacting farmers in some Member States: this turns into EUR 74
a cow in the mountainous areas of France that Mr Andrieu mentioned, up to
EUR 530 a cow in Finland, EUR 300 a cow in Hungary, EUR 114 a cow in
mountainous areas in Spain, EUR 250 per cow in Romania, EUR 65 a cow
in Croatia and EUR 145 a cow in the Azores under the POSEI scheme, in
addition to whatever the regional government wishes to give under the rural
development programme. I give those as examples of where policies are
being put in place to cushion the incomes of dairy producers, which has
often been ignored: the contribution and the choices that you as legislators
have given to Member States and regional governments in order to do that.
Market intervention thresholds always come up but, as I mentioned in my
contribution, the product that goes into intervention has to be put on the
market at some place in the future. It is interesting at the moment that
skimmed-milk powder is not going into intervention, and it would be
interesting to analyse the reasons why.
I am very conscious of the Russian ban and its impact on agricultural exports
from dairy, and I am looking into how we can actually assist producers and,
in taking account of some of the measures that have been made already, how
we can roll those over in the future. I hope to be in a position to come back
to those particular measures for farmers and for people in sectors other than
dairy in the future.
New markets are very important. In fact, butter products have achieved a
buoyancy in 2015: up 8% in the first quarter, while skimmed milk powder
has gone up 17%. Other products, like cheese, have gone down. So there are
certainly some measures where the glass is half full. There is certainly a
need for more promotion, and the budget has been increased in order to find
third-country markets.
In terms of volatility, there is a structural issue (I think Mr Smith is quite
correct about that) in some Member States, particularly in the United
Kingdom. I think that we need to look at ways in which we can assist in the
establishment of better contractual relations between farmers and the
industry and how some coops – in fact in some Member States – are
establishing a lock-in price over a period of time at a very reasonable price.
There are structural problems, I agree. At the European Investment Bank, in
spite of what my friend Mr Flanagan said, it is not a compulsory option to
take out a loan, but there are opportunities for people to get access to finance
whether they are young farmers or whether they are people who want to
expand. The food chain continues to be a source of concern, and we are
watching carefully what is happening in the United Kingdom and Spain in
order to give us some experience, and we look forward to the report of Ms
McGuinness later this year, which will give us more information and
explanation about what action we can take in order to improve the situation
for the producer here.
Super-levy instalments are the only policy vehicle at my disposal, because it
was agreed by legislators back in 2003, confirmed in 2008 and again in
2013, that we were going to have a super levy. Farmers produced more milk
in 2014 knowing that they were going to have to pay a super levy. The
Council of Agricultural Ministers could not reach an agreement on a soft
landing in relation to the super levy payments, so I did what I could, which
was to apply a three-yearly interest-free instalment arrangement for the
payment of that money. I will do what I can to maintain as much of that
money as possible in the agricultural sphere.
These are important issues that have been raised here this evening. I can
certainly say, in the context of the Russian ban, new markets and volatility
of the food chain, that we are making considerable efforts to implement
measures that will meet the concerns you have expressed. There are direct
support provisions which have not been mentioned too loudly here tonight,
but I am bringing to your attention the fact that a considerable amount of
expenditure – EUR 820 million – is cushioning farmers, even though the
price of the product is reducing. I again want to thank the speakers – the
rapporteur in particular – and the shadow rapporteurs for their input, and it
has produced sufficient information for me to be able to take cogniscence of
measures that can perhaps be taken in future on many of the areas that have
been mentioned in the report.