European Union agriculture ministers have reached agreement in principle as regards a support package being put together for the dairy industries of the Baltic countries and Finland to help ease the impact of the Russian import restrictions, Finland's Minister of Agriculture Petteri Orpo said from Luxembourg on Monday.
Orpo told Finland's YLE public broadcaster not a single country was opposed to the package.
«There was quite a lot of understanding for the support and it had strong backing from Germany and France. Besides there was no division between countries of the north and countries of the south visible this time,» he said.
Orpo said there was no specific talk of the size of the package and the Commission will continue preparation of the package this week.
Estonia's Agriculture Minister Ivari Padar told the news portal of public broadcaster ERR that as far as the dairy sector goes all countries spoke about their own situation and discussions are set to continue. While no sums can be mentioned at this point, the Baltic countries and Finland have a special status in this, he said.
«All the speeches from different corners of Europe highlighted someone's specific concern. Be it mackerel, lemon or peach. Being situated next to the Russian border, we and the Baltic countries have problems immediately when cargoes can't move across the border,» the Finnish minister said.
He said Finnish milk producers are estimated to lose 200-300 million euros this year if the sanctions continue. It is hoped that Finland and Estonia will get approximately 150 million euros in support.
The Commission must decide on Wednesday where the money will be taken from.