First Elements of €500 million Package for Farmers Adopted

EU - The first elements of the special aid package for EU farmers worth €500 million, announced by the European Commission in early September, have now been adopted by the European Commission.
calendar icon 6 October 2015
clock icon 3 minute read

Draft rules for most of the other measures have also been presented to Member State experts and will formally be approved in the coming days and weeks.

The largest part of the package is a targeted aid scheme worth 420 million EURO, which is allocated to Member States in the form of national envelopes for distribution mainly to dairy and pigmeat farmers, targeting those sectors that have been most adversely affected by the market situation.

To aid cash-flow difficulties, the Commission has also published a new Implementing Regulation which provides more flexibility to Member States to pay out earlier a greater share than usual of the CAP Direct Payments and area related payments from Rural Development.

In addition to this, the Commission has finalised texts related to reinforced Private Storage Aid schemes for certain dairy products to address the market imbalance and increased funding for promotion especially on non-EU markets (+30 €million).

Furthermore, the Commission continues to monitor closely the pigmeat market and is ready to activate an enhanced Private Storage Aid scheme for pigmeat. In a further initiative, led by DG ECHO, the Commission is moving to provide €30 million to support the nutritional requirements of refuges within the EU.

Commissioner Phil Hogan said: "As part of this package is aimed at addressing the more short-term cash-flow problems that many farmers face, I am delighted that we have been able to move so quickly. It is now up to national administrations to ensure that objective criteria are defined and the funds are able to reach farmers without delay."

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