Farmers protest milk prices
At the meeting, measures to boost the milk market were sought by the French, German, Austrian and Cypriot ministers, supported by the Lithuanian, Slovak, Cypriot, Luxembourg, Polish, Hungarian, Belgian, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Spanish, Latvian and Romanian ministers.
However, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel ruled out reopening the health check package which includes the phasing out of milk quotas, and pointed out that export refunds for butter, cheese and milk powder, private storage aid for butter, and intervention for butter and milk powder had already been introduced in response to market deterioration.
