Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environmental Affairs transfers 2.17 billion euros to autonomous regions to make advance payment of direct aid under CAP

Given the situation of drought in many areas of Spain, the ministry and the regional governments have made a great effort this year to ensure that the advance payment is made as quickly as possible and that the maximum amount authorised by the European Commission, which was increased by 70% following a request from Spain.

This increase, asked for by the Government of Spain, was approved back in August by the European Commission through a Decision that allowed the percentage of the advance payments of the direct aid campaign for 2017 to be increased and paid out as from 16 October.

This measure is very important in certain areas in which the drought has caused a diminishment in the production obtained, and for those farmers whose crops were prevented from going through the normal development of the harvest by frozen conditions and storms in April and May.

Hence, 70% of the funds can be paid out under the majority of the lines of direct aid under the first pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy provided that the correct controls have been finalised under prevailing legislation. In addition, 85% of the aid for rural development can also be paid out. The rest of the direct payments under the 2017 campaign of the Agricultural Policy will be made as from 1 December.

The advance payments can be paid out in all the autonomous regions, although this decision will be made by each regional government. To that end, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environmental Affairs has coordinated all the steps prior to paying out the funds. The regional governments that have still not made the advance payments have confirmed their intention to do so to the ministerial department once the pertinent controls have been finalised.

According to the forecasts made by the regional governments, more than 2.7 billion euros will have been paid out in advance payments prior to the end of November, with the balance of the payments of subsidies due to be paid in December.

Advance payment in the region of Catalonia

In the specific case of the autonomous region of Catalonia, the payments of direct aid have been made without any form of problem or delay. In the case of the advance payments, the regional government requested a total of 156.3 million euros from FEGA on 27 October, which corresponds to 70% of the payment of uncoupled subsidies (basic payment regime, 'greening', payment for young farmers and regime for small-holders).

This amount was transferred on Tuesday 31 October, in the same way as to the rest of the autonomous regions that requested funds last Friday. Accordingly, Catalonia can now start to make the advance payments to farmers according to schedule, and no delay has taken place in the processing of these payments, thus framed within a situation of normality in the management of European aid that has taken place over recent weeks.

Non official translation