It also put forward its own proposals for dealing with oversupply.

Slovenian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Dejan Židan backed proposals for a support scheme under which farms would voluntarily reduce production and one-off subsidies to farmers worst hit by the current crisis on agricultural markets.

The proposals by Germany and France to prop up ailing farm markets in the face of excess supply were delivered as the European Commission presented a new package of aid for EU farmers on top of the EUR 500m package put in place in September.

In addition to a scheme for voluntarily reducing supply, the Commission has also proposed bolstering the purchase of excess dairy products for use in the bloc's emergency reserves. This would involve some 215,000 tonnes of milk and butter, said Židan.

Slovenia has also requested that pork also be included in the purchase programme for emergency reserves and that farmers be provided one-off assistance. The Commission promised to examine both initiatives.

Židan also backed a Franco-German proposal to set up an export assistance scheme, which would help EU farmers sell their products on third markets. The measure envisages credit lines for buyers from outside of the EU.

Additional funds will also be poured into promoting EU farm products on third markets, with as much as EUR 100m available for this purpose, according to the minister.

On top of the measures for helping farmers deal with the current crisis, Slovenia today proposed mandatory labelling of the origin of raw materials on products such as milk. The proposal was filed with the support of the Visegrad Group, France, Austria, Romania and Bulgaria.

Židan said EU agriculture ministers are expected to continue their debate on measures to help prop up the ailing farm sector at their next meeting in April.