Lack of EU action big blow to farmers

MANY farmers will go out of business while waiting for EU politicians to take action, said IFA president Pádraig Walshe after EU agriculture ministers made no new moves to help dairy farmers at their meeting last Monday.

Several ministers said measures proposed by the European Commission were insufficient to solve the dairy crisis, but they were unable to agree which measures would be best. Ministers and the commission rejected proposals such as increasing intervention prices or freezing milk quotas, which would be in breach of their health check decisions of October.

Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel – who recently said the dairy market is coming back into balance and prices have stabilised– agreed to consider dairy proposals on labelling, quality or promotion.