Direct aids to farmers were reduced by EUR 868 million in financial year 2014 by applying the financial discipline mechanism. This reduction was necessary to establish the agricultural crisis reserve and to ensure that total CAP expenditure for market measures and direct aids stayed within the ceiling agreed in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020.
However, in 2014 it was not necessary to use the crisis reserve. In fact the support measures taken from August 2014 onwards in the wake of the Russian embargo on EU agricultural products will only lead to EU expenditure for the 2015 budget.
Moreover, unused amounts of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund in the 2014 budget were mobilised to prevent a cut to farmers' payments. Therefore, the Commission adopted on 24 November 2014 a regulation allowing Member States to reimburse, as of 1 December 2014, farmers a total of EUR 868 million.
The reimbursement should be made no later than 15 October 2015. This reimbursement mechanism was agreed in the 2013 CAP reform, and is now applied for the first time.
(for more information: Daniel Rosario – Tel.: +32 229 56785; Justyna Milanowska – Tel.: +32 229 94246)
