Word: european
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...Other industries have been affected by the plunging prices too. Only 10% of all milk produced in the European Union is sold to consumers for drinking. One-third is used for making cheese, a quarter for butter, 12% for cream and the rest for milk powder and other products. Europe's cheese industry has been particularly hurt in the downturn. Unlike milk, which is seen as a staple, cheese is regarded as a luxury, and sales tend to drop off dramatically during a recession...
...European Union has certain measures in place to protect dairy farmers. Since 1984, the E.U. has set an annual milk quota in order to avoid the so-called "milk lakes" and "butter mountains" (stocks of unsold cartons of milk and butter) that were created in the 1980s when farmers produced more milk than Europe needed. This year the E.U. quota has been set at about 134.3 million tons of milk, with the German share the largest, at about 27.3 million tons. But last November, E.U. leaders agreed to phase out milk quotas by 2015, increasing the annual production allotment...
...European Commission has moved in the short term to help farmers rebound from the global downturn. In January, milk prices fell so fast that officials reinstated export subsidies, a controversial measure that means European milk is sold to the rest of the world at artificially low prices, sometimes destroying local markets in poorer countries. In March, the commission started buying up butter and skimmed milk, raising the specter of new butter mountains. (Officials said because the purchases were temporary and on such a small scale, they resulted only in what could be described as "butter hillocks...
...Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told the European Parliament last week there was no negotiation on the quota issue. But she promised other measures to help the farmers, including enacting special rules on state subsidies so governments can offer them a one-time aid payment...
...criticized a "way of thinking based on the idea that American-style free-market economics represents a universal and ideal economic order." "The influence of the U.S. is declining," Hatoyama wrote, in a "new era of multipolarity," and he went so far as to propose something like a European Union - with a single currency, no less - in East Asia. It is enough to make one wonder how well founded the U.S.-Japan relationship really is, and how resilient to a changing global environment it is likely...