Brussels, 22/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 21 November, the European Commission announced the approval of a new series of rural development programmes by the competent committee of the EU. This will involve Belgium (Wallonia), Estonia, France (Martinique and La Réunion), Germany (three regions), Greece, Italy (4 regions), Portugal (mainland and the Azores), Slovakia and Spain (Navarra). The Commission still has to formally ratify these programmes and announced that others would be approved in the next few months.
Estonia. Estonia will have €924.8 million from the rural development public fund for 2007-2013, €714.6 of which comes from the EU budget (EAFRD - European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development).
Slovakia. €2.5 billion from public funds will go to rural regions of Slovakia. The EU will grant the country €1.96bn.
Portugal. The rural development fund envelope for mainland Portugal rises to a total of €4.44bn, of which €3.46bn comes from the EAFRD. The programme for the autonomous region of the Azores is counting on €322.8m in public funding (EAFRD €274.4m).
Germany. The programme for the region of western Mecklenburg-Pomerania gets €1.15bn in public funding for the whole period, €942.2m from the EAFRD. The programme for the region of Schleswig-Holstein rises to €456.3m (€237.7m from the EU budget). The programme presented by the Saxony-Anhalt region is planning on €1.06bn from public funds, €817.5 from the EAFRD.
Italy. Rural development measures for Calabria are financed to the tune of €1.08bn for the region of Calabria (€623.3m of which comes from the EU budget), €896.6m goes to Piedmont (€394.5m from the EAFRD), €1.2bn to Sardinia (€551.2m from Community funds) and €760m to Umbria (€334.4m). The total EAFRD contribution for 2007-2013 is €8.29bn.
France. The rural development programme for the island of La Réunion obtains total financial aid of €514.4m (2007-2013), €319.1m is from the Community budget. Public funds for Martinique rise to a total of €146.4m (€100mn from the EU budget).
Belgium. For the region of Wallonia, the rural development programme gets at total of €476.9m, €194m from the EU budget. (L.C.)