The European young farmer body, CEJA, has called for funding that will enable producer organisations, inter-branch organisations and co-operatives to make voluntary agreements on production. it advocates the use of Article 222, which would allow these changes to take place, in order to deal with plummeting prices and cashflow difficulties being faced by farmers today,

"CEJA is very much advocating the use of Article 222. However, we need to have new EU money to fund this article," CEJA president Alan Jagoe told the extraordinary COMAGRI hearing on 'New exceptional marketmeasures limiting milk production' in the European Parliament on Wednesday.

"Without the presence of this new money and this article, we will cease to exist," the Cork dairy farmer added. "We cannont afford to lose any single one of these young famrers who are the future lifeblood of out industry."

According to CEJA, the current market situation will continue to get worse unless appropriate measures such as the volunatry regulation of production area activated, financed and made operational as quickly as possible. In a letter addresssed to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, the chair of COMAGRI Czeslaw Siekierski and acting president of the Agriculture Council Martijn van Dam, CEJA outlined that Article 222 is not just an empty gesture but one which can become operational and alleviate pressure on prices across agricultural sectors.