EU milk quotas may be phased out says commissioner
EU - Europe's system of milk production quotas may be phased out to help the dairy industry prepare for their planned abolition in 2014, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said on Sunday.
24 September 2006
1 minute read
Created in the mid-1980s to deal with the European Union's notorious milk surpluses, the national quota system is due to be abolished in 2014/15 as part of the mammoth farm reform in 2003.
Fischer Boel, known not to be a fan of traditional market management tools for the sector such as production quotas, buying-in intervention and export subsidies, hinted she might favour a transitional period before quotas came to an end.
"We should give the sector the possibility ... of a phasing-out period, so you don't destroy the possibilities for those in business. Predictability is so important," she told a news conference during an informal meeting of EU farm ministers.
Source: Reuters
