European citizens want to know why dairy producers spend all their time protesting, when milk is so expensive. Where does the money go to? And what is the EU doing about all this?

Questions: Milk crisis

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/14548109/Y010-00023-EN.srt

Why is milk so expensive, and why   do milk producers protest all the time?

The milk producers protest because   the producer prices are so low, too low.

No farmer in the EU can survive   with 20 or 22 cents for a litre of milk.

Dairy products in the shops   are nevertheless expensive.

The Commissioner has said that there   will be a study to search for solutions.

Milk producers aren't currently   being paid decently.

The retailers and the   food-processing multinationals

take a very big margin   on the selling price of milk.

In Belgium, for example,   farmers get 18,5 cents per litre,

whereas in shops a litre of milk   sells for 0,80 - 1,50 euros.

So there's a big mark-up   for the middlemen.

What does the EU do to alleviate   the milk problems, the milk crisis?

The Commissioner's response   has been weak.

For 6 months now she has been   proposing export subsidies.

These subsidies would go to   the food industry and the middlemen,

This is an inappropriate and insufficient   solution given the depth of the crisis.

We have to consider that we only have   a certain amount of money for this sector.

We cannot use more than that   as we have a yearly budget.

Of course you can claim that the yearly   1% quota rise is not the right signal.

But the majority of the Member States   supports this raise

and says that the farmers   are at liberty

to find a balance in the market...   between supply and demand.

Thank God we are, in all political areas,   and always have been;

We can only solve those problems   together. I am convinced of that.

I am positive that we will   solve them together.

The Common Agricultural Policy is,   in essence, a common policy.

For example, if there are   wine producers in the south,

Also, if there's less milk production in the   south, there's more in the north.

It's an exchange between   north and south.

It's perfectly normal that   each Member State pays a part

to create a communal pot which helps   maintain producers across in the EU,

within traditional agricultural methods,   in line with the environment and society.