Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions officials in her Department have had with their counterparts in EU member states and officials in the European Commission on the revision of the European School Milk Scheme.

Defra officials have been fully engaged with the EU Commission’s proposal to reform the EU School Milk Scheme and have participated in a number of technical working groups.

Work on this dossier has become bogged down on a number of important issues, including Member State concerns about the legal basis for the proposals, the nature of their objectives and scope, and the main financial provisions. The Commission is currently carrying out a review and the department will engage constructively with this process. In the meantime, the existing arrangements for EU school milk – agreed during CAP reform and set out in Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 – will continue to apply.