Brussels, 03/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised Baden-Württemberg (Germany) to pay income aid worth some EUR 5.1 million to beef farmers who suffered losses between November 2000 and June 2001 because of the consequences of the BSE crisis. After approval of a first package of BSE-related state aid in the Land, the Commission established that there had not been overcompensation at sectoral or individual farm level, but points out that two further measures are still being examined in Baden-Württemberg: compensation towards extra costs for disposal of meat and bone meal and specified risk materials and income aid for non-farmers.
The Commission has also authorised a package of aid in Austria that has various aspects, for a total of over EUR 29 million, in order to compensate farmers who had to take the necessary BSE protection measures between December 2000 and May 2001 after BSE cases were first discovered. The various types of aid are intended to compensate for the decrease in value of processed animal proteins and animal feed and additives in feeds containing animal proteins; for storage, transport and disposal costs of processed animal proteins and of animal feed, additives in feed containing specified risk materials (SRMs) and milk; compensate for the loss of income on farms which were blocked because of BSE; and finally for BSE test costs. The Commission considers that the measure complies with the rules on state aid granted to programmes for fighting animal diseases. This authorisation follows the line taken in earlier decisions for Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, where the Commission ruled that the beef crisis was an exceptional event justifying such income aid.