EU officials understand the critical situation in the dairy sector and promise to find support 

On 3 and 4 December, farmers from the Baltic States and Finland and representatives of non-governmental organisations organised activities in Brussels to draw the attention of the European Commission and MEPs to the critical situation in the dairy sector caused by the food embargo imposed by the Russian Federation. On Wednesday, the farmers met with several MEPs from Latvia (Sandra Kalnieti, Inesi Vaideri, Artis Pabriks, Iveta Grigulis), as well as Petri Sarvamma, Olli Rehn and Nils Torvalds from Finland, Albert Dess from Germany, Urmas Paet, Tunne Kelam and Indrek Tarand from Estonia, including the Chair of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Czesław Adam Sekerski, while on Thursday the representatives met with the Vice-President of the European Commission Jyrki Katainen from Finland, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, and Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. During the meetings, both MEPs and Commissioners received a symbolic Baltic-Finnish milk, thus reminding that dairy farmers are waiting for quick help to stabilize the situation.

Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairwoman of the Association "Farmers' Council": "On Wednesday, we met with MEPs and the head of the Agriculture Committee, calling for sufficient resources to be allocated in next year's Common Agricultural Policy budget to address the crisis situation in the Baltic and Finnish dairy sector. We are pleased that they understand our critical situation and promise to ensure that next year's EU budget is one that can respond to the situations that have currently developed in our region. At the moment, there is a feeling that the new Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development is sufficiently motivated and able to defend the interests of his sector, and the Commissioner is also well informed about the situation in our country. Both in the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee, where he heard MEPs on Wednesday, and when meeting with farmers' organizations on Thursday, Commissioner Hogan clearly mentioned the Baltic and Finnish milk issue and promised that he would use all the tools at his disposal to help the dairy sector overcome the current difficulties."

Uldis Krievārs, member of the board of the Latvian Agricultural Cooperatives Association, chairman of the board of LPKS “Trikāta KS” and owner of the dairy farm “Pilslejas”: "We had a meeting with the European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, together with all other COPA-COGECA organizations. We are pleased that Baltic and Finnish farmers were able to speak out and highlight the milk issue. Both during public discussions and individual meetings, the Commissioner confirmed several times that the situation is under control and that the necessary solutions are currently being sought to provide additional support to the Baltic and Finnish dairy industry. Overall, we are satisfied with the result, because we got the feeling that the new Commissioner is promising what can actually be done."

We remind you that Latvian farmers, together with farmers from the other Baltic countries and Finland, demanded that the European Commission increase support for dairy producers who have suffered losses due to the Russian embargo at a rally in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday. The European Commission has so far decided to allocate 28 million euros to dairy producers in the Baltic States who have suffered from Russian sanctions, including 7.7 million euros of this amount to Latvian dairy producers.

The interests of Latvian dairy farmers were represented in Brussels by Uldis Krievārs, a member of the board of the Latvian Dairy Farmers' Association, Maira Dzelzkalēja, deputy chairwoman of the association "Zemnieku saeima", Ieva Alpa-Eizenberga, owner of the agricultural cooperative "Robežnieki", and Agnese Hauka, a rural development expert of the Latvian Farmers' Federation.