Brussels, 20/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has drastically reduced the money from the EU budget for the 2012 programme for the supply of food to the most deprived in the EU. On 15 June, it decided to allot €113.5 million (€22.1 million to Italy, €18 million to Spain, €17.3 million to Poland and €15.8 million to France), rather than the €500 million that was proposed in September of last year.
The Court of Justice of the EU ruled on 13 April that the majority of the agricultural produce covered by this scheme should come from public stocks. It ruled, too, that purchases on the open market could be authorised under certain conditions which do not currently obtain. The €113.5 million for the 2012 aid programme corresponds to the value of the intervention stocks available at present (162,000 tonnes of cereals and 54,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder).
The Commission is very keen to see this scheme continue, as, it says, it meets the objectives of the common agricultural policy (market stabilisation and reasonable prices for consumers). In September 2010, the Commission proposed reviewing the operation of this aid scheme. It suggested that, in future, the aid plan should be established on a three-yearly basis and be co-funded by member states (with those states that are part of the cohesion programme contributing 10% and the others 25%) within a maximum budget of €500 million. The proposal was supported by the European Parliament, but it remains deadlocked in the EU Council of Ministers, where six countries - Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and the Czech Republic - argue that that this aid programme should no longer be funded through the common agricultural policy as public stocks have been greatly reduced, and that is more suited to social policy which is funded nationally. No discussion of this issue has taken place under the Hungarian Presidency.
Last year, more than 13 million vulnerable people benefitted from this aid scheme. (L.C./transl.rt)