Agriculture Minister Welcomes EU's Poultry Sector Aid Plans
SLOVENIA - Slovenian Agriculture Minister Marija Lukacic welcomed the European Commission's plans to co-finance national aid programmes to the poultry sector, which were agreed in Brussels on Monday, 20 March."I backed the EU's plans to contribute half of the aid, as this is the biggest guarantee for success. State aid alone, financed from the national budget, is not such an effective form of aid," Lukacic added.
Lukacic, speaking at the sidelines of a meeting by the bloc's agriculture ministers, pointed out that the ministers discussed EU subsidies for exports to markets outside the bloc.
She also stressed that the "Commission must try and get the Balkan countries to lift the ban on poultry imports" from the EU.
"Some Balkan countries have closed their markets for EU poultry, while Slovenian poultry producers export 50% of their production to those markets," Lukacic explained.
According to her, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that the EU is in talks with those states to lift the ban.
Lukacic also stressed the need to subsidise private stockpiling and restructuring for breeders, abattoirs and the food-processing industry.
Source: Slovene Press Agency STA
27 March 2006
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