On Monday, the European Commission unveiled new exceptional measures to help crisis-stricken farmers across Europe. The measures, announced after a meeting between agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan and member state ministers on the EU Council, meet many of the demands put forward late last week by Europe’s farm groups.

The aid package announced after the meeting is intended to be flexible to allow member state governments to take action most befitting their country’s situation and focuses on the dairy, pigmeat, fruit and vegetable sectors. The package was cautiously welcomed by European farm lobby group Copa Cogeca, who said it stands to alleviate some pressure on farmers, but added farmers will “have to see how it will work in practice.”

Reacting after the Commission’s announcement, Copa President Martin Merrild said, “The package is a step forward but we need to see how it pans out. Many farmers across Europe are facing the worst crisis since the early 1980s.

“The proposed measures on state aid and increase of de minimis aid may help some farmers, but it is a step away from a common EU policy that should shoulder the consequences of international policy developments”.

Cogeca president Thomas Magnusson welcomed Commission moves on finance and the pledge to grow new export markets for farmers. President Merrild said, “It is good that the EU milk market observatory has been extended to sectors other than dairy. But I urge Ministers to step up payments of the 500 million euros package released by the EU last September as only part of the aid has been paid out.”

Ahead of the announcement, Copa Cogeca complained that only a fraction of the €500m aid package unveiled in September has so far been paid out. Martin Merrild added, “The EU dairy and pigmeat sectors are bleeding. They were hit by the loss of our main export market Russia - worth 5.1 billion euros. The Russian market must be reopened as soon as possible.”

On Tuesday, the presidents of the UK’s four largest farming unions issued a joint statement welcoming the measures, but asking Defra and the Commission toward together to tackle the effects of the ongoing crisis. Ahead of the meeting, the union chiefs had met with the UK’s agriculture ministers and Commissioner Hogan in Brussels.

In their statement, the four presidents said, “Commissioner Hogan’s package of measures announced at yesterday’s Agriculture Council are a step in the right direction – we welcome increases to the limits for dairy intervention and steps to look into a new private storage aid scheme and are very pleased to see that the commission will establish a meat market observatory – a key UK farming union ask.  But there are [other] key steps the Commissioner and the Secretary of State could take to help farmers in these difficult times.”

After welcoming the measures announced on Monday, UK union leaders called for the removal of tariffs on imported fertiliser, pointing out that the differential between global and European fertiliser prices has now reached €100/tonne,  a review of the dairy intervention price, which they said could stabilise prices in the milk market, providing much needed support to the sector.