Eurocommission: EUR 434 million from the reserve will be returned to farmers

Eurocommission: EUR 434 million from the reserve will be returned to farmers

At the end of November, the European Commission adopted a regulation allowing EU member states to pay their farmers EUR 434 million. This amount was originally deducted during the 2020 budget year from direct payments to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in order to create this year's so-called agricultural crisis reserve. As the crisis reserve was not used in the financial year 2020, Member States can pay farmers the amounts deducted from direct payments this year from 1 December 2020. The European Commission has been informed. The concept of the agricultural crisis reserve and the mechanism for its reimbursement were agreed in the 2013 CAP reform. They were applied for the first time in the financial year 2014. The deduction only applies to income support above € 2,000 and in the financial year 2020 does not yet apply to Croatia. This is due to the process of phasing in levels of support after EU accession. As regards Croatia, which joined the Union in 2013, income support under the CAP is not yet fully in place.