Brussels, 11/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 11 December, the European Commission announced that it has approved 10 programmes (but rejected 18 others) presented by the Member States, with the objective of vaunting the merits of the consumption of EU agricultural products in certain countries outside the EU (United States, Canada, India, Japan and China). The Community budget will contribute to the tune of 9.079 million EUR (or 50% of the total of 18.158 million EUR) to the expenditure for the promotional programmes, most of which run over three years (2006, 2007 and 2008): 1.750 million EUR for Greek wines, 1.606 million EUR for Greek processed fruits, 1.425 million EUR for wine from Cyprus, 1.042 million EUR for wines from Portugal, 870,758 EUR for Polish meat, 600,000 EUR for Italian olive oil, 558,017 EUR for organic products from Italy, 528,844 German dairy products, cereals, meats, fruits and vegetables, 526,813 for other high-quality Italian organic products (projected designations of origin and protected geographical indications) and 141,210 EUR for plants from the Netherlands. (lc)