The European Commission announced on Monday 23 January an easing of rules in order to help agricultural communities in Italy that have been affected by the recent earthquakes.
The Commission is not planning to make any additional funding available to the farmers affected. At this stage, it has agreed only to allow greater flexibility in implementing a number of measures with immediate financial effect.
In the affected regions, Italian authorities will be able to complement the €21 million envelope from EU funds received in July 2016 that they have earmarked for earthquake-stricken regions with national funding of up to 200%, thus tripling the available financial support (to €63 million).
The Commission will increase the level of permitted advance payments for certain measures under the second pillar of the common agricultural policy (CAP) – rural development programmes – from 85% to 100%. This is complemented by the postponement from March to June 2017 of the deadline for reporting on controls for certain rural development measures. In addition, the Commission will also respond positively to the Italian request to extend the areas for which the Commission has already authorised advance payments from some direct payment schemes and allowed the payment of certain rural development measures to be brought forward.
These measures were announced after a meeting on the side-lines of the Agriculture Council on Monday between European Commissioner Phil Hogan and Italian Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies Minister Maurizio Martina. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)