Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I have continually pressed the Commission to take all appropriate measures to deal with the dairy market situation, and in 2009 Public Intervention, Aids to Private Storage and Export Refunds helped to stabilise the market for dairy products. With regard to intervention for butter and skimmed milk powder, last October Commissioner Fischer Boel gave a commitment to manage the release of stocks from intervention in a prudent manner, and I have also discussed this with the new Commissioner Ciolos.

The dairy market situation has improved considerably since last autumn and more recently has shown signs of a robust recovery with increased commodity prices on world and EU markets, and a consequent rise in milk prices. Last week the Commission took the initial step of activating the procedure for selling intervention stocks by means of a fortnightly tender, which will commence in June. The actual release of stocks from Intervention must be handled carefully and in a way that does not undermine the market. Therefore, I believe that the volume and price of sales from Intervention should reflect the market situation at the time of the tenders. I will continue to maintain close contact with the EU Commission and the Council to ensure that the release of Intervention stocks is managed in a manner that is sensitive to the market pressures at the time.