Ms Catherine Lascurettes:

I want to select a question Senator Ó Domhnaill raised earlier regarding EU market supports and export refunds in particular. A large swathe of the EU market supports were done away in 2007 or at the end of the previous Common Agricultural Policy, the one that has just finished. The situation prior to that was that, by and large, we had a global market with relatively low prices and an EU market with much higher prices. The logic of the export refund measure was that one was bridging the gap between the two, but that is no longer the case. Today, skim milk powder and whole milk powder prices would be similar for such products coming out of the EU for export, and also, for example, on the Global Dairy Trade, which, incidentally, this afternoon went up another 9.9%, so markets are righting themselves, as we speak. They have a way to go, as was pointed out, but they are going in the right direction. However, it is cyclical.

We no longer have a budget for market supports at European level. We now have to tap into the so-called crisis fund. Such a fund can only be generated out of a levy on farmers' basic payments. I would have some reservations about export refunds in terms of how useful they can be at present. The current Common Agricultural Policy does not do a great deal to address the issue of volatility. There is much more work to be done around providing information that can be used through the milk market observatory to establish indices and to do the kind of thing that can be done by the USDA in the United States, namely, providing hedging mechanisms and options that are readily and simply available to farmers. The Commission should take an interest in this area. For all sorts of the WTO-related reasons, I do not think we will see export refunds being relevant again, particularly in the context of their being no fund for them.