'No decisions' made on extension of financial aid for embargo-hit dairy farmers: EC
Late last year, the EC provided a €40m support package for dairy farmers in Finland (€10.7m), Lithuania (€14.1m), Latvia (€7.7m) and Estonia (€6.9m) - markets "particularly adversely affected" by the Russian ban on Western food imports.
The Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, introduced a one year ban on the import of beef, pork, poultry, fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products from the EU, US, Australia, Canada and Norway on August 7 2014.
In June, however, Russia extended its ban until January 31 2016.
Earlier this week, Desislava Taneva, the Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture, told reporters the EC has no intention of providing financial aid to Bulgarian dairy producers despite the extension.
Approached by DairyReporter.com, a Commission source said Brussels is "studying the situation."
“€40m in targeted aid was provided to dairy farmers in Member States particularly hit by the ban, providing essential income support for farmers in countries largely dependent on export of dairy products to Russia," said the Commission source.
“The Commission is aware of the difficulties faced by dairy producers in several Member States."
“The Commission is studying the situation but no decisions have been taken.”
"Softened the impact"
Last week, the EC extended Private Storage Aid (PSA) for butter and skimmed milk powder (SMP) - introduced on August 2014 to “alleviate the impact of Russian restrictions on imports for EU dairy products and to limit the negative effects on the internal market."
PSA for butter and SMP was scheduled to end on September 30, but will now stay open until February 29 2016.
EU Member States offered a total of 115,493 tonnes of butter into PSA between September 8 2014 and July 26 2015.
Over the same period, 40,874 tonnes of SMP have been offered into PSA by Member States.
This, the Commission source said, came at a cost of €13m.
"This measure softened the impact of the ban," the source said.
