Press Release: Member States face levies of EUR 377 million for exceeding milk quotas

Member States face paying levies totalling € 377 million for exceeding their milk production quotas in the quota year 2005/06 (April – March), according to a provisional calculation by the European Commission, based on Member States' annual declarations. Last year the total levy amounted to € 355 million. Nine Member States (Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, and Portugal) exceeded their delivery quotas. Altogether these account for an overrun of 1 217 000 tonnes, resulting in a levy of € 376 million. More than 90% of the levy is accounted for by 3 Member states – Italy, Poland, and Germany. However, the levy for Poland, which provisionally stands at € 91 million, is likely to be substantially reduced through the conversion of unallocated direct sales quota to delivery quota. As for direct sales to consumers, for which the total quota is 2 million tonnes, only Spain and the Netherlands reported overruns, totalling 2 600 tonnes resulting in a levy on direct sales of €0.8 million.