Tag: milk

French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday (27 October) pledged €1.65 billion in support for France's struggling farm sector and urged the EU to move faster in reinforcing dairy regulations.

The European Union should focus on satisfying the needs of its domestic dairy market and ensuring a fair standard of living for farmers rather than deregulating the sector, the European Court of Auditors said yesterday (15 October).

A Franco-German initiative on a new regulation to help hard-hit milk producers was backed yesterday (7 September) by sixteen of the 27 EU member states, paving the way for possible re-regulation of the milk market. 

The EU has limited scope to help struggling dairy farmers over the next two years, but is investigating whether big supermarkets are using their buying power unfairly against them, a European Commission report on the dairy market situation shows.

Hundreds of dairy farmers protesting against low milk prices drove their tractors into Brussels yesterday before a summit of EU leaders, causing traffic chaos in and around the city. Further protests were announced for next week.

Marianne Fischer Boel, the EU's agriculture commissioner, yesterday (23 March) dismissed calls by Germany and four other EU nations to reinstate milk quotas in an effort to support prices, which have plunged dramatically in recent months.

The Socialist Group in the European Parliament has criticised the Commission for not having anticipated the changes in the world dairy market. But Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel qualifies recent price increases as being the "market in action", beyond EU control.