An informal meeting of European Ministers of Agriculture will take place in Luxembourg tomorrow.

The meeting comes amid concerns in many Member States that the outcomes agreed at last week’s Council will not be sufficient to resolve many of the issues in the dairy and pigment sectors in particular.

During the exchange of views which took place in the extraordinary meeting of the Agriculture Council last week, ministers expressed strong concerns about recent developments in a range of agricultural sectors.

In response to the difficulties currently being faced by these sectors, the Commission put forward a package of measures. These are intended to help address difficulties in cash-flow faced by farmers, stabilise markets and address the functioning of the supply chain.

The agenda of the ministers meeting on Tuesday, September 15, will be “Evolution of the markets – further examination of the package”.

Irish Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney warmly welcomed the announcement by the EU Commission that it is providing a €500m aid package for European farmers but called for immediate clarification on how these funds will be distributed between Member States and further details of the measures envisaged.

Speaking after the lengthy Council meeting last week, the Minister said it was certainly welcome news that the EU Commission is prepared to make half a billion in funding available from the EU budget to support hard-pressed farmers.

However, he also said that the issue now is to clarify as soon as possible how these funds are going to be disbursed to Member States.

“We also need to know complete details of the measures the Commission is envisaging to support the market,” he said.