EU farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, has rejected any idea of additional market support being made available for farmers, pointing out that a staggering 13 member states haven’t as yet made use of the funding first made available by the European Commission (EC) in September last year.
Answering press questions after yesterday’s council of farm ministers’ meeting in Brussels, the commissioner said that any talk of more money being made available to alleviate the farm market situation was “very premature” given that Є195m (£152m) from last year’s EC package remained untouched and unused.
“We will continue to monitor the market situation, of course, and will see what new ideas and measures are brought to us by member states ahead of the next council meeting in June,” he said, adding that the June meeting will also include a “thorough evaluation” of the measures which are currently in place.
Commenting on the current state of the different sectors, Mr Hogan welcomed “some signs of stability” in relation to pigmeat, plus encouraging export growth for the sector. He did add, however, that the increase in exports has not yet been reflected in better prices.
Headline image shows Commissioner Hogan answering press questions after the May 17 farm council meeting