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During the last Agriculture and Fisheries Council, the Polish delegation briefed the Ministers on the constant difficulties faced by the pig and milk sectors. In addition, the Spanish delegation also described to the Council the current market situation affecting several agricultural sectors, specially the milk and the fruit and vegetables sectors. Those contributions were fed into the debate on the market situation organized by the Presidency during the working lunch.
The Polish delegation voiced its concerns regarding the dairy and pig meat markets and asked for more financial resources to compensate for the impact of the Russian ban and the summer 2015 drought, export refunds for both the dairy and pig meat sectors, the raising of reference thresholds in the milk sector and the re-launching of the private storage aid mechanism for pig meat. Poland requested initiatives to open new markets and reopen the Russian market for EU agricultural products.
According to Martijn van Dam, Minister of Agriculture of The Netherlands and the President of the Council, "Today's debate will be the base for the formal discussion on this very topic on the March council meeting. On that occasion we will assess the market measures currently in place, and decide what would be an appropriate approach.”
In turn, the European Commissioner, Mr. Phil Hogan, reported, regarding the pig sector, that new ideas have been requested to try to alleviate this sector's difficult situation. They will have to be handed before February 25th and they will be evaluated by the Commission and the Presidency. According to Mr. Hogan, we cannot work as we have been doing until now, because this is a very difficult and critical situation that has gone on for more that expected. Mr. Hogan also stressed that any solution will have to fit into the EU budget.
Monday, February 15th 2016/ Consilium/ European Union.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu
