The European Union on Monday announced a major aid package to crisis-hit dairy farmers, as hundreds of milk producers hit the streets in Luxembourg to press home their call for help. EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said she would release 280 million euros (418 million dollars) in aid for Europe's ailing dairy farmers, while warning that the EU coffers were not boundless.
"I'll empty my pocket, and I have 280 million euros for the farmers," she said, at European Union farm talks in Luxembourg. "That's (all) I have. I don't have a special account in Switzerland or anywhere else," she told reporters, suggesting that little further help from the EU's executive body could be expected.
Nevertheless it was an about-turn for the Danish EU commissioner, who had previously categorically refused to put her hands in the EU pockets. Her announcement came after 21 of the EU's 27 nations, including France and Germany, called for such aid, which will be drawn from the bloc's 2010 budget.
Last November, EU agriculture ministers agreed to lift milk production quotas by one percent per year before scrapping them altogether in 2014-2015. But in recent months, European farmers have ramped up protests in search of EU support through financial aid or by limiting supplies, as dairy product prices collapsed due to low demand caused by the financial and economic crisis.
Since 2007, milk prices have in the worst cases halved. Last week, at a meeting in Vienna, Europe's main milk producing states requested EU aid of 300 million euros (443 million dollars) next year to help the sector. In the longer term, the countries want to find a new price regulatory system to replace the current milk quota system, which is due to be abolished in 2015, they said. The French and German farm ministers greeted the EU move with measured enthusiasm.