EU-lidstaten krijgen 364 mln euro boete voor overschrijding melk-quota (en)
According to a provisional calculation by the European Commission, based on Member States' annual declarations, nine Member States exceeded their milk delivery quotas in the 2004/2005 quota year. One additional Member State also exceeded its quota for direct sales to consumers. These ten Member States will have to pay so-called `Super Levy' totalling €364 million. Last year the total levy amounted to €385 million.
For the period 2004/05, the total quota for deliveries to dairies was set at 126 million tonnes (divided into 641 000 individual quotas) for the whole of the European Union (EU-25).
According to their declarations, nine Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria) exceeded their quotas and together account for an overrun of 1 069 000 tonnes. Consequently the levy totals €356 million.
Six Member States (France, Greece, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Finland and Sweden) have not fully used their quotas. The 10 new Member States (NMS) did not exceed their quotas. This can partly be explained by the fact that for the NMS, only 11-months production from 1st May 2004 was taken into account.
As for the quota of 2 million tonnes for direct sales to consumers, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands reported an overrun of 24 554 tonnes. Consequently the additional levy totals €8 million.
How the system works
The marketing of cow's milk in the European Union is restricted by means of maximum reference quantities (quotas) in order to achieve a balance between supply and demand. Each Member State receives two "reference quantities", one for deliveries to dairies, the other for direct sales to consumers.
These quantities are distributed among producers (individual quotas) in each Member State on the basis of historical production. In case of an overrun of the national quota during the quota year, which runs from 1st April to 31 March, a levy is payable in the Member State concerned by the producers who have caused the overrun - after reallocation of unused quantities. The rate of the levy is €0.3327/kg of overrun. Each year before 1st September, the Member States report to the Commission the results of the application of the milk quota scheme over the previous period.
Annex 1: Provisional figures for 2004/05
Annex 2: Figures for 2003/04
[Graphic in PDF & Word format]
[Graphic in PDF & Word format]
[Graphic in PDF & Word format]