Common organisation of the market in milk and milk products: intervention prices

The committee adopted the report by Elisabeth JEGGLE (EPP-ED, D) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure. The committee was concerned that drastic cuts in intervention prices would have a serious impact on the income of dairy cattle farms. It therefore wanted intervention prices for butter and skimmed milk powder to be reduced to a lesser extent than was being proposed by the Commission, and said that these cuts should not come into effect until 1 July 2005, rather than 1 July 2004 as proposed. It also felt that the maximum intervention quantity of 30 000 tonnes which the Commission was proposing for butter was too low and should be increased to 80 000 tonnes in order to stabilise the milk market and prevent farm incomes from collapsing. MEPs also said that less-favoured areas should be entitled to an extra EUR 5 per tonne in support payments, in view of the vital importance of milk production in such regions.�