The European Court of Auditors is investigating whether temporary support measures for the dairy market worked well. These temporary supports involved over 740 million euros from 2014 to 2017.
The EU support was intended for sectors damaged by a Russian import ban on European dairy products. This was retaliation for the European embargo against Russian companies due to Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea.
To prevent dairy prices from falling to an unsustainably low level, a European safety net was established to reduce some of the surpluses. In 2014-2015, prices for milk producers fell by about 10 euro cents per liter to approximately 30 cents. The European Commission considered the milk sector to be affected by market disruption. EU countries could top up the EU funding from their own national budgets.
“Milk producers faced a significant drop in their income,” said Nikolaos Milionis of the European Court of Auditors. This body leads the audit of the measures taken. They will check whether the EU funds were properly spent to help dairy farmers cope with the crisis.
The auditors from the Court of Auditors will make inspection visits to France, Italy, Ireland, and Finland to examine how the EU measures were implemented in practice. The largest producers of cow’s milk are Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, and Italy. Two-thirds of all milk processed by dairy companies is used for producing cheese and butter.
The final report of the European Court of Auditors is expected to be published at the end of 2020.