Agro Perspectiva

? 30 million EU support for the promotion of agricultural products

02.07.2010 10:29 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — The European Commission has approved 19 programmes in 14 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom) to provide information on and to promote agricultural products in the European Union. The total budget of the programmes running between one and three years is ? 60.6 million, of which the EU will contribute ? 30.3 million (50%). The selected programmes cover fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy products, honey, flowers, fibre flax, PDO, PGI and TSG and organic products. «European Union farm products are unique in their quality and diversity» said Dacian Cioloş, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. "In an open global market, merely producing excellent food and drink is not enough. We need to increase our efforts to explain to consumers the standards and the quality of what EU agriculture puts on the table. EU programmes of this sort can really help our producers in an increasingly competitive world. On 17 December 2007 the Council merged the two existing EU Regulations on information provision and promotion measures in a single EU Regulation 3/2008, covering both the internal market and third countries.The measures financed within this framework can consist of public relations, promotional or publicity actions, in particular highlighting the advantages of EU products, especially in terms of quality, hygiene, food safety, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environment-friendliness of their production. These measures can also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the EU system of protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), information on EU quality and labelling systems and organic farming, Information campaigns on the EU system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR) are also amongst the possibilities. The EU finances up to 50% of the cost of these measures (up to 60 % in programmes promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetable by children or concerning information on responsible drinking patterns and harm linked to hazardous alcohol consumption), the remainder being met by the professional/inter-branch organisations which proposed them and/or by the Member States concerned. The detailed rules for applying those promotion and information measures are laid down by a Commission Regulation2, It lists the themes and products that can be covered by the promotion measures. Each year, by 30 November, interested professional organisations can submit their proposals to the Member States, These then have to send the Commission the list of programmes they have selected and a copy of each programme, Subsequently the Commission evaluates the programmes and decides on their eligibility