Fischer Boel rejects attempts to revise plans on milk quotas

THE European Commission has rejected calls led by France, Germany and eastern Europe to revise plans to phase out milk quotas. “I am not going to reopen the agreement,” said Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at this week’s meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels.

Last November, it was agreed to lift quotas 1% per year, before scrapping them in 2014-2015.

Ministers said the dairy sector is fighting for survival because of plunging prices, but Commissioner Boel said EU milk production is heading for 4% to 5% under quota this year and next year. “This clearly shows that farmers understand that it is market prices and their cost structure, rather than the quota levels, that should determine their production decisions. Quotas are not an obligation to produce, but a possibility.”