Brussels, 30/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - At the request of the Hungarian delegation, supported by the Bulgarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian and Slovak delegations, the Agriculture Council debated the financing of producer organisations (POs) in the fruit and vegetable sector.
The reform of the fruit and vegetable sector in 2007 reaffirmed the important objective of continuing to strengthen POs. Supporting POs proved particularly important from 2007 to 2013 in member states with a low level of concentration of producers. A Commission regulation was adopted at the beginning of April 2012 decreasing the EU cofinancing rate of PO support.
In Hungary's view, this jeopardises one of the main objectives of reform of the fruit and vegetable common market organisation. Furthermore, it was not in line with the proposals for the common agricultural policy (CAP) reform, which planned an increase in financial support to POs.
The Commission stated that there had been slippage on the amount of aid: €15 million in 2007 to perhaps as much as €300 million in 2012. This was a situation that had to be corrected. In addition, the Commission stated, the annual ceiling of €10 million refers only to new plans and not to recognition plans that are being implemented.
Proposals on the reform of the CAP make provision for continued support for the formation of groups of producers in future and for support for their investment. This will form part of the second pillar, rural development, and will cover all sectors. (LC/transl.rt)