Press Release: Drought: Commission proposes lower set-aside to stabilise EU grain market

The European Commission adopted a proposal on 11 November 2003 to reduce the compulsory set-aside rate for the cereals harvest 2004 (marketing year 2004/05) from 10% to 5%. Consequently, farmers can make use of this reduced rate from 15 January to 31 August 2004. This measure is justified by very low cereals production in 2003 due to the severe drought in main EU production regions during the summer. To help the affected farmers, the Commission has already made use of other market management tools, including the sale of stocks from public storage to ensure that the EU market obtains supplies. As a consequence of the severe drought this year, a normal harvest in 2004 (with a 10% set-aside rate) would not lead to a significant revival of stocks in EU-25 unless exports or internal consumption were significantly lower than normal. On the other hand, a poor harvest in 2004 would expose the internal market to potentially serious risks. According to Commission estimates, the reduction of the set-aside rate to 5% could be expected to boost EU grain production by around seven million tonnes.
This proposal has to be adopted by the Council of Ministers, following an opinion of the European Parliament.

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