In 2023, dairy farms in the European Union produced 160.8 million tons of raw milk, which is 0.8 million tons more than in 2022 and 15.8 million tons more than in 2013, according to a study by Eurostat.
According to it, most of the milk produced in the EU is used for butter and cheese production. Thus, in 2023, 149.3 million tons of raw milk were supplied to dairy plants, which was used to produce a number of fresh and ready-made dairy products.
In turn, EU dairies produced 22.0 million tons of drinking milk and 7.8 million tons of fermented milk products in 2023. At the same time, 58.2 million tons of whole milk and 17.4 million tons of skim milk were used to produce 10.6 million tons of cheese. Another 45.4 million tons of whole milk was used to produce 2.3 million tons of butter, the study says.
Germany became the leader in the production of milk and dairy products in the European Union, accounting for 19% of the total production of drinking milk. It was also a leading producer of fermented milk products (27%), butter (20%) and cheese (22%).
Spain was the second largest producer of drinking milk (15% of the EU total), followed by France (13%). The Netherlands was the second largest producer of fermented milk products (17%), followed by Poland (10%).
France was the second largest producer of both butter and cheese (18% of the EU total for each product). Ireland was third in butter production (13%) and Italy was third in cheese production (13%).
France’s public debt at the end of the second quarter of 2024 rose to 112 percent of GDP, up from 110.5 percent at the end of March.
This was reported by the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Research (Insee).
From April to June, the debt increased by €68.9 billion, reaching €3,228.4 billion.
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The new French government wants to reduce the budget gap by 60 billion euros in 2025 and is preparing a temporary tax increase.
The new French government has announced a decision to raise taxes starting in 2025. The Minister of Finance Antoine Armand said this on RTL radio.
The draft budget for 2025 with specific proposals is to be released on October 10.
The goal of the French authorities is to reduce the budget deficit by 60 billion euros. This is partly planned to be done by cutting spending (by €40 billion) and partly by increasing budget revenues.
“As soon as we manage to cut spending significantly, we will need exceptional and temporary help from those with very high incomes,” Arman said. He assured that people with low and middle incomes will be exempt from the additional fiscal burden: “The income tax rates for those who go to work every day will not change.”
His government colleague, Laurent Saint-Martin, Minister of Budget and Financial Accounts, said on France 2 on Thursday that only 0.3% of the population will feel the tax increase – the richest households in France, those without children and earning an annual income of 500,000 euros.
The tax increase will also affect the largest companies.
Earlier this week, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier warned that the current financial situation in the country is a sword of Damocles hanging over every French citizen. “We need to act now to ensure a stable financial future for our country. Our debts exceed €3.2 trillion, and this is a situation we cannot ignore,” he said.
In September 2024, for the first time since the global financial crisis, the yield on French government bonds exceeded that of Spanish securities. The reason is that the budget deficit in France is too high.
Last year, it was 5.5% against the planned 4.9%, and this year it may reach 6%, which is much higher than the European Union’s limit of 3%. At best, France will be able to return to the target no earlier than the end of this decade.
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France and Canada have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of military materiel for Ukraine and in the field of training within the framework of the Defense Contact Group (Ramstein), in particular, they will continue to deepen strategic cooperation in the field of cyber defense in support of Ukraine, according to a declaration agreed upon during a meeting in Ottawa on September 26 by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are committed to working with Ukraine and our partners to enable Ukraine to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, both in traditional domains and in cyberspace, including by supporting the strengthening of Ukraine’s civilian cybersecurity capacity through the Tallinn Mechanism. More broadly, we will continue to discuss topics of mutual interest that were discussed during the Paris Conference on February 26, 2024,” the document, published on the Canadian government’s website, reads.
The declaration states that Canada and France have already trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation UNIFIER for Canada and the EU Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) for France. The armed forces of the two countries also continued to cooperate in training Ukrainian fighter pilots.
France will provide Ukraine with at least EUR60 million by the end of this year, according to Pierre Elbrun, the French President’s Special Envoy for Ukraine’s Relief and Recovery.
“As winter approaches, the situation is becoming critical – we must act now to quickly offer concrete energy solutions,” he wrote on social media X following a meeting of the G7+ Ministerial Group on Energy Support to Ukraine at the level of foreign ministers on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on Monday evening.
At the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken noted that the G7+ countries have mobilized more than $4 billion to support Ukraine’s energy sector since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
In a statement following the G7+ ministerial meeting, the countries welcome further commitments of funding and in-kind support to cover the most urgent needs of the Ukrainian energy sector, including repairing damaged power plants and district heating systems, deploying new, distributed energy sources, emergency backup power for critical services, and passive protection of energy infrastructure.
France will use EUR300 million in 2024 to purchase weapons for Ukraine, part of the EUR1.4 billion in proceeds from frozen Russian assets allocated by the European Union, the French Defense Ministry said.
“The European Commission has agreed with the Directorate General for Armaments that it will use these funds to quickly acquire priority equipment for Ukraine from the French industry, ammunition, artillery and air defense equipment from the French industry for a total of 300 million for 2024,” the ministry said in a communique published on Friday.
Earlier, EU Diplomacy Chief Josep Borrell said that the EU has already begun to transfer the proceeds of Russia’s frozen assets to the Ukrainian side and the bloc countries that will supply Kyiv with weapons.
