02/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Boost to countries in difficulty. On Monday 5 September, the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will also discuss the proposal that would allow the countries which find themselves in difficulty (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Hungary, Romania and Latvia) to be helped to continue rural development programmes and pay out funding for these projects. The proposal contains provisions that allow the EU contribution to rural development programmes to be increased: - up to a maximum of 95% of eligible public expenditure in the regions eligible under the convergence objective, the outermost regions and the smaller Aegean islands; - and up to 85% of eligible public expenditure in other regions. (L.C./transl.rt)