Lyon meets with French Agriculture Minister to discuss dairy plans

1.55.29pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 7th Oct 2009

George Lyon, Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, has met with French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire to discuss proposals put forward by the French and others to introduce a regulatory framework in order to solve the milk crisis.

Mr Lyon has serious concerns that these proposals will damage the Scottish dairy industry.

Mr Lyon will today reaffirm his stance in a meeting with UK Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Hilary Benn MP.

Commenting, Mr Lyon said:

"The French proposal for a new regulatory framework is nothing more than a smokescreen for cutting quotas, introducing individual superlevies on producers and big hikes in intervention buying.

"These proposals would be deeply damaging for the Scottish dairy industry. It would penalise our farmers who have invested heavily in becoming bigger and more efficient.

"I made this quite clear to the Minister during our meeting. His plans were deeply flawed and would lead us back to a future of milk lakes and butter mountains.

"There are clear signs of the milk market recovering. Spot prices in Northern Ireland and Germany are up by nearly 20% and the price at the last auction by Fronterra in New Zealand was up by 50%.

"It therefore makes little sense to propose cutting European production just when the market is showing tentative signs of recovery.

"The EU Agriculture Committee will continue to oppose any move to halt the planned increase in milk quota agreed as part of the health check."