REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BRUSSELS -- The European Commission will grant an additional 500 million euros ($553 million) to help farmers tackle a long-lasting crisis linked to low prices, mainly in the dairy sector hit by the scrapping of production quotas and a Russian import ban on Western products.

The Commission, the EU executive, presented the package at an EU Agriculture Council gathering of member states' farm ministers, it said in a statement.

It mainly included a plan to reduce milk production, worth 150 million euros, and 350 million of subsidies that would come on top of aid granted by member states, thus potentially doubling the support being provided to farmers, it said.

The EU executive had granted a package of 500 million euros in September, targeting mainly cash-flow difficulties and market stabilisation, as well as a plan in March allowing producers to freeze milk output, relaxing EU limits on subsidies and effectively suspending EU rules on fair competition.

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