Vienna 'milk summit' demands more money for dairy farmers

(VIENNA) - Europe's main milk producing states have requested EU aid of 300 million euros (443 million dollars) in 2010 to help the sector, Austrian Agriculture Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said on Monday.

Representatives of 20 European Union countries representing 75 percent of European Union milk production had gathered in Vienna to coordinate their response ahead of a meeting of agriculture ministers next Monday in Luxembourg.

An emergency meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels last Monday put off a decision on more generous support for dairy prices as hundreds of furious farmers brought the city to a standstill with around 740 tractors.

The officials meeting in Vienna on Monday also agreed on measures including storage and new regulation to help the sector, where prices have plunged in some cases by up to 50 percent since their peaks in 2007 and 2008.

The requests will be presented to current EU president Sweden and the European Commission.

"And it is our very clear wish that these measures be implemented," Berlakovich told reporters.

The proposal would mean additional outlays for governments at a time of a strapped budgets, Berlakovich and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire conceded.

For Austria, it would represent extra spending of 4.0-6.0 million euros and for France as much as 60 million euros.

But both ministers said it showed their governments' commitment to help milk producers.

In the longer term, the 20 countries want to find a new price regulatory system to replace the current milk quota system, which is due to be abolished in 2015, they said.