A package agreed by European Parliament and Council negotiators means 8 billion euros will be made accessible to European farmers in 2021 and 2022 to address the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are pleased that the support will be available to farmers next year”, says ECR shadow rapporteur Bert-Jan Ruissen MEP (NL). “These funds need to reach farmers as swiftly as possible, to overcome the consequences of the pandemic and to emerge from it stronger. We want to boost farmers’ resilience and capacity for innovation, digitalisation and sustainability.”
Young farmers in the EU can also receive an increased amount of dedicated support. This is thanks to a proposal of ECR Group that is included in the political agreement today on the agricultural money in EU’s Recovery funds.
Young farmers will be allowed up to EUR 100.000 for start-up aid. This was EUR 70.000 in the original proposal. In addition, Member States may increase support rates for investments for all farmers.
“During the pandemic farmers have shown once again that they are indispensable for our critical food supplies. We must do everything to ensure our farmers emerge from this crisis even stronger than before”, concluded Ruissen.
