One year after the end of milk quotas: assessing the destruction, accountability nowhere in sight
Press release
Brussels, 1 April 2016
In light of the anniversary of the removal of milk quotas
ECVC demands political responsibilities from those who decided and supported the removal of milk quotas because of the devastation, hardship and death it has brought upon thousands of farms in Europe.
A year after the elimination of the quota system, laid bare the lies and siren songs given to the European dairy sector, the situation cannot be bleaker.
To this severe and unprecedented situation, not only suffered today by small and medium farms but large ones as well, we can add the ineffectiveness, procrastination and hypocrisy being used today by those policy makers responsible for eliminating the quota system, very well aware of the dire consequences they would bring to the dairy sector.
ECVC and its organizations always opposed their removal, pointing out the consequences this would bring. ECVC demands a thorough and honest analysis of the situation. It is unacceptable to eliminate small and medium milk producers to serve speculation and the vertical integration of the European dairy sector.
ECVC demands that with urgency the EU Commission, the Council and Parliament get to the bottom of the problem and address the situation with the following measures:
Reintroduce the limitation and control of production to eliminate surpluses and stabilize the market, and prices for farmers.
Raise the price of public intervention to production costs, so that a safety net can genuinely exist for both farmers and consumers.
ECVC calls for mobilizations and shows its support for the demonstrations and demands that its members are organizing and putting forward in Portugal, Galicia / Spain, Austria, as well as those planned in other parts of Europe in the coming days.
Isabel Vilalba: (Sindicato Labrego Galego – ECVC) 0034 60 890 5444
Jose –Miguel Pacheco: (Coordination Committee ECVC) 0035 19 1873 6441
Genevieve Savigny: (Coordination Committee ECVC) 0033 62 555 1687
Andoni Garcia: (Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos- ECVC) 0034 63 645 1569
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