Brussels, 01/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Thursday 1 July that it had approved 19 programmes in 14 member states (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom) to provide information on and to promote agricultural products in the European Union. The programmes, which run between one and three years, have a total budget of €60.6 million, with the EU contributing €30.3 million (50%) of this sum. The selected programmes cover fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy products, honey, flowers, fibre flax, quality products and organic products.
“European Union farm products are unique in their quality and diversity,” said Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Dacian Cioloº. “In an open global market, merely producing excellent food and drink is not enough. We need to increase our efforts to explain to consumers the standards and the quality of what EU agriculture puts on the table. EU programmes of this sort can really help our producers in an increasingly competitive world,” he went on.
Among the most costly programmes approved are: - a programme submitted by three countries (France, the Netherlands and Spain) promoting fruit and vegetables in those three countries and also Germany (€4.2 million in EU funding); - a programme from three counties (Belgium, France and the Netherlands) for processed fruit and vegetables (€3.7 million); - a Dutch programme for fresh fruit and vegetables (€2.5 million); - a programme from three countries (Belgium, France and the United Kingdom) to promote fresh fruit and vegetable consumption (€2.4 million); - an Italian programme to promote Prosciutto San Daniele and Grana Padano in Italy and the United Kingdom (€1.98 million); - a Polish programme for quality meat (€1.8 million).
The measures financed within this framework can consist of public relations, promotional or publicity actions, in particular highlighting the advantages of EU products, especially in terms of quality, hygiene, food safety, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environment-friendliness of their production. These measures can also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the EU system of protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), information on EU quality and labelling systems and organic farming, Information campaigns on the EU system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR) are also amongst the possibilities. The EU finances up to 50% of the cost of these measures (up to 60 % in programmes promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables by children or concerning information on responsible drinking patterns and harm linked to excessive alcohol consumption), the remainder being met by the professional/inter-branch organisations which proposed them and/or by the member states concerned.
Interested professional organisations can submit their proposals to the member states by 30 November each year. The member states then have to send the Commission the list of programmes they have selected and a copy of each programme. The Commission assesses the programmes and decides on their eligibility. (L.C./transl.rt)