The European Parliament wishes to establish national reference quantities.

Lastly, Commissioner, I believe too that maintaining the unjust and insufficient fat content referencing quantities, which many dairy farms have, is unacceptable.

It is therefore necessary to convert the German reference quantities of the producers concerned into Austrian reference quantities as from milk quota year 2004/2005.

As far as doses, and hence optimum consumer care, are concerned, Parliament welcomes the system of maximum safe doses combined with the reference quantities per head of population.

Article 7(2) should, then, establish the optional suspension of the link between quotas and land, authorising Member States to introduce regional restrictions on the transfer of reference quantities without land.

Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, however, which introduced direct payments for the dairy sector, left the administration of the individual reference quantities of the producers in question to the German authorities.

The proposal to apply sanctions when the reference quantities are exceeded, as a means of managing the market, may admittedly seem attractive at first sight, but in practice I see it causing us huge difficulties.

And, ladies and gentlemen, in Parliament we called for an increase in the maximum guaranteed quantity to take account of consumption, exports and a safety margin, and this was the condition, ladies and gentlemen, that was to enable us to subsequently establish national reference quantities.