The EU Commission has to cope with a record crop, with the accession of 10 new member states, and the resulting problems of a large surplus, which must be exported or delivered to intervention stores. Five countries in the Southeast of the EU have no direct access to seaports, their freight cost to either North, Baltic, Black Sea and Mediterranean is too high to compete with offers from France, U.K. and Germany. Intervention is open since November 1, and deliveries of all grains (rye and oats cannot be tendered to intervention) are: Hungary 2.14 million tonnes, Germany 1.13 million tonnes, Czech 0.61 million tonnes, Slovakia 0.15 million tonnes, France 0.12 million tonnes, Poland 0.10 million tonnes. Total offered so far is 4.73 million tonnes, of which 1.38 million tonnes barley. Barley intervention is centered on Germany with 1.02 million tonnes. Since late October the EU tries to reduce the barley surplus of 7-8 million tonnes by granting export restitutions. The competitiveness of the EU is affected by exchange rates and high freight cost. Export restitutions granted so far are 794,000 tonnes, latest refund is EUR 17.99 per tonne. In November 52,000 tonnes of “zero” licences were booked for exports of malting barley.