De Commissie gaat akkoord met speciale steun voor landbouwers in Zuid-Finland (en)

The Commission has today approved a transitional national support programme for farmers in the South of Finland. The programme contains structural aid and income support and will be in force from 2008 to 2013. Article 141 of the Finnish Accession Treaty provides a basis for temporary special support programmes for farmers in Southern Finland. The Commission can authorise such support to help farmers to integrate into Common Agricultural Policy. The Decision taken today provides farmers in Southern Finland with balanced and substantial national support, in addition to normal aids from the CAP. The farmers will get increased support for the improvement of farm structures, in particular investment aid and aid for young farmers.

Mariann Fischer Boel i, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said: "I am pleased that the Commission has approved this programme, which resulted from lengthy negotiations with the Finnish authorities. This is a transitional measure, where the amount of income aid will decrease every year in total and for each sector. An important part of the income aid will be decoupled and paid per hectare, following the principles of the reform of the CAP. Farmers in Southern Finland are thus offered a chance of completing their successful integration into the CAP."

The main points of the Decision:

In order to ensure a strong structural development, the Commission authorises Finland to grant investment aid for certain targets, such as production buildings and their equipment, animal welfare and nature protection, at a higher rate than otherwise allowed in State aid rules for agriculture. The aid rate varies according to investment targets: the highest aid rates are available for production buildings and equipment in the ruminants sector, up to 60 % or 70 % for young farmers, and in environmental protection, animal welfare and production hygiene, which will benefit from an aid rate of 75 %.

Young farmers will get an additional € 15 000 start-up aid to buy a farm or farming equipment. This amount comes on top of the maximum aid available under Community legislation for the setting up of young farmers.

Technical aid of at least 90 % of the costs will be granted for establishing farm business plans.

The Commission holds that income aid under Article 141 contributes to sustainable farming only if combined with such structural support. Therefore the Decision states that national income support may be paid to farmers only if they can benefit from the maximum levels of structural support set out in the Decision.

For the years 2008 to 2013 the following amounts of income aid can be made available to farmers in the sectors of animal husbandry, horticulture, field vegetables and starch potatoes in Southern Finland in order to facilitate the successful implementation of the structural support programme:

2008 93.90 Million €

2009 90.36 Million €

2010 87.03 Million €

2011 83.90 Million €

2012 75.23 Million €

2013 62.93 Million €

If Finland starts paying increased compensatory allowances during the period of validity of the Decision the increase has to be fully deducted from the income aid.

The income aid to the pigs and poultry sector will be decoupled from production from 2009 onwards in order to facilitate the structural change in the sector.

Income aid of € 9.69 Million per year will be paid as a hectare-based aid to livestock farms. The objective is a better integration into the CAP by reducing the aid paid according to the quantity of production.

The Commission holds that this type of income aid must be a temporary measure to address serious difficulties and facilitate the integration of Finnish agriculture into the CAP. Therefore in this Decision the Commission has authorised only degressive income aid where the overall aid and the amount of aid paid to each sector will diminish each year.