Brussels, 11/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The agricultural structures committee (the "STAR" committee), in which the Member States are represented, gave its favourable opinion on Tuesday to the co-funding of the cross-cutting rural development plan presented by the Czech Republic, thus paving the way for the formal approval of the plan by the European Commission in the coming weeks. The Czech plan will be co-funded by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), "Guarantee" section, for a total of 542.8 billion EUR for the period 2004-2006. This EU contribution will be added to by national funding from the Czech government to the tune of 135.7 million EUR. The decision in favour of the co-funding of the rural development plan by the EU is a "positive signal" for the population of rural areas in the Czech Republic, "because it shows our determination to help it to achieve its ambition of a sustainable and more competitive agricultural sector, of improving revenue and creating new jobs", said the Commissioner for Agriculture, Franz Fischler.
The Czech rural development plan provides notably: -measures to improve the revenue and social status of farmers (such as early retirement, which guarantees sufficient revenue and fair standards of living for farmers aged over 55 who decide to cease practising agriculture for commercial ends, and helps to support their replacement by younger farmers, more able to improve the economic viability of holdings; -aid to less-favoured areas and those subject to environmental restrictions; -agro-environmental measures to promote methods of use of agricultural areas compatible with the protection and improvement of the environment and the rural area: -incentives to forest-planting (the idea is permanently to reduce the surface area given over to cultivation, in order to develop wooded areas and to increase the biodiversity of the rural area); -to promote the creation of groups of farmers able to sell their agricultural base products collectively; -technical assistance to develop a monitoring system for the rural development plan.