ICOS President Edward Carr has welcomed the agreement reached in Brussels regarding Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation and the proposed introduction of mandatory contracts.

The EU Commission proposal to improve the position of the farmer in the food supply chain has been provisionally agreed in a compromise document hammered out by the EU Commission, the EU Council and the European Parliament.

It includes a recognition of the existing relationship between dairy co-operatives and their farmer suppliers. “We welcome the fact that this regulation gives a derogation to co-operatives which already have a robust model of milk supply in place determined by democratically elected co-operative boards. We could not contemplate a situation where the Commission would impose another layer of contract where the existing model is transparent and works well,” Mr. Carr said.

Barry Cowen MEP for Midlands North West was a shadow rapporteur on this file for the Renew Group in the EU Parliament and he strongly pushed for the derogation for co-operatives during the protracted talks. 

Mr. Carr said, “These negotiations were protracted and complex. I would like to thank Barry Cowen for his hard work and for listening to our concerns and those of other co-operatives across the EU and in representing those concerns at the crucial trialogue meetings. Common sense prevailed. The imposition of mandatory contracts on co-operatives would have added more red-tape and bureaucracy where there is already a well functioning model of milk supply including existing milk supply agreements.

Concluding, Edward Carr said, “We welcome the overall initiative by the EU Commission to improve the position of the farmer in the food supply chain. And we hope that when the agreement enters law it will support all farmers while allowing co-operatives to continue functioning with transparency and accountability.”