EU fails to reach consensus on dairy market reforms

European Union farm ministers failed on Monday to agree what steps should be taken to avoid a repeat of last year's dairy sector crisis, when farmers staged demonstrations and supply boycotts in protest at record low milk prices.
At a meeting in Brussels, the ministers debated a report issued by an expert group in June, which proposed changing EU competition rules to allow dairy farmers to jointly negotiate contract terms, including prices, in negotiations with dairies.
During the debate, 22 of the EU's 27 states supported the proposal, including France, Germany and Italy.
But opposition from Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark — often seen as taking a more free-market line in farm talks — meant governments were unable to adopt unanimous conclusions on the issue.
"The Belgian presidency really would have liked to have had strong, firm council conclusions," Belgian Farm Minister Sabine Laruelle, who chaired the meeting, told a news conference.
"It would have been easy for us to go with the lowest common denominator and have a fairly wishy-washy set of conclusions, but we didn't want to do that," she added.
The European Commission is due to make legislative proposals on reforms to the EU dairy sector by the end of the year — possibly by November — which will draw on the findings of the expert report and the views of member states.
Should the Commission decide to propose changes to EU competition rules, the 22 states would have a sufficient majority to agree the plan under the EU's weighted voting system, despite the opposition of Britain and others.
Many view the dairy sector proposals as a guide to the possible market management measures that the Commission will propose next year in the wider reform of the bloc's common agricultural policy (CAP).
Other reforms proposed by the expert group included the creation of dairy futures markets and the use of long-term supply contracts for milk farmers.