Brussels, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - During Monday's Agriculture Council in Luxembourg, Finland and Commissioner Franz Fischler came to an agreement on continuing State aid from 2004-2007 for farmers from southern Finland. Aside from aid under the common agricultural policy (CAP), during this period Finland will also be able to grant 420 million EUR in income aid (129 million EUR in 2004, 100 million EUR in 2005, 97 million EUR in 2006 and 94 million EUR in 2007), and 225 million EUR in agro-environmental aid for cereal producers, to include 48 million EUR under support for less-favoured areas granted to Finland in negotiations on CAP reform in June. Finland's existing State aid programme was to expire at the end of this year.
Finland must formally notify the Commission of the details of its State aid programmes. The European Commission has undertaken to approve this regime "as quickly as possible".
Finland will have to write an assessment report in 2006 and based on the conclusions of this document, the Commission will look into whether the programme should be continued after 2007.
When it joined, Finland was allowed provisionally to maintain certain subsidies, to take account of the specific nature of Finnish agriculture and to facilitate the country's integration into the common agricultural policy (article 141 of Finland's Accession Treaty).
Last Saturday, Dr Fischler visited Finland to discuss this subject, and recommended that Finnish State aid be removed gradually (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.11).