Six Member States – Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and Luxembourg – exceeded their milk quotas in 2011/2012, triggering „superlevy” penalties of about € 79 million, according to Commission figures.
Despite the overrun of the quotas in these six Member States, total EU deliveries remained well below the global quota volume (-4.7%). According to national declarations, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and Luxembourg exceeded their national quotas by a total of 283 000 tons, despite the 1% quota increase in the year 2011/2012 decided in the framework of the 2008 CAP Health Check. The Netherlands also exceeded also its direct sales quota, while the other Member States exceeded only their quota for deliveries. The number of Member States exceeding their quotas remains limited and the concerned surplus production accounts for less than 0.2% of all milk delivered or covered by direct sales. Several Member States produced far below their respective national quota; 10 Member States recorded deliveries at least 10% below their quota. In the 2010/2011 quota year 2010/2011, penalties worth €55.6m were triggered in 5 Member States and overall EU deliveries were 5.5% below the total EU quota volume.