EU emergency package to dish out €30m funding boost

UK farmers will get a €30 million (£25.1m) share of a new €500m EU emergency support package '“ aimed chiefly at the dairy sector '“ farm commissioner Phil Hogan has announced.

EU farm commissioner Phil Hogan. Picture: Contributed

Around €150m will be used to encourage dairy farmers across Europe to voluntarily reduce milk production, while measures will also be introduced to allow members states to choose from a list of options designed to help stabilise markets across the board.

Hogan said member states would have the option to match-fund the €350m made available by the commission should they wish to further support farmers. Some flexibility will also be granted on how voluntary coupled measures and other options were administered by individual countries.

He added that precise details of the different measures would be finalised in the coming weeks. It was also announced that in a repetition of last year’s move, national governments would be allowed to advance up to 70 per cent of direct payments from 16 October and 85 per cent of area-based Rural Development payments without the necessity of completing the on-the-spot checks.

• UK farm minister George Eustice will remain with Defra, it has been announced. The Cornwall MP – who campaigned for Brexit alongside new Defra secretary, Andrea Leadsom – has been elevated from a parliamentary under secretary to a minister of state.