€433 million has become available for reimbursement to farmers across the EU, according to European Commission regulation.
This amount, which equates to £381m, comes from the agricultural crisis reserve for the 2017 budget year, made up of money taken from farmers' direct payments for this year.
The amounts deducted may be reimbursed to farmers by the member states as from Friday (1 December).
Despite a number of critical situations in the agricultural sector in the past year, the funds available in the crisis reserve in 2017 were not used.
Additional support measures for some sectors facing difficulties such as fruit, vegetables, dairy and other livestock sectors were financed from the existing budget in 2017.
Farmers concerned by damages caused by adverse weather conditions in spring this year have been supported with higher advances for direct payments for 2018, and derogations from certain conditions related to greening payments.
The concept of the agricultural crisis reserve and reimbursement mechanism was agreed in the 2013 reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and was applied for the first time in the 2014 budget year.
The deduction only applies to direct payments above €2,000.
The highest amounts reimbursed to member states include: France – €89,884,134; Germany – €58,035,302; Spain – €54,860,187; UK – €37,930,754; Italy – €37,765,185 and Poland – €24,870,087.
