On Friday 19 June, the European Parliament adopted enhanced measures to allow Member States to support farms affected by the coronavirus pandemic, within the framework of rural development programmes (see EUROPE 12491/4).
On 11 June, the European Parliament Agriculture Committee gave the go ahead for new provisions to give farmers and small and medium-sized agri-food enterprises greater financial support under the second pillar. On Friday, in plenary, MEPs adopted a series of amendments to improve the Commission's original proposal.
The changes involve raising the ceiling for payments to individual farmers to €7,000, which is €2,000 higher than in the draft proposal. MEPs did not change the proposed €50,000 limit for payments to agri-food SMEs.
MEPs set the limit for funding the measure at 2% of the national allocation from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), compared to the 1% proposed by the Commission. They also agreed to extend the deadline for payments under the plan from 31 December 2020 to 30 June 2021. Applications have to be approved by 31 December 2020. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)