UK farmers are to receive a reimbursement of almost £69 million from the European Commission (EC) as part of a reinstating of money previously taken as part of the EU’s crisis reserve.
The repayment, which will be made by October 15 next year, is the UK’s share of a total reimbursing of EU farmers adding up to 868m. This amount was originally collected by way of applying a reduction to direct aids to farmers in the 2014 financial year.
As the crisis reserve wasn’t needed in 2014, however, it can now be returned. That’s despite the cost of the support measures taken from August 2014 onwards in response to the Russian embargo on EU agricultural products. That action will be funded from the EC’s 2015 budget.
France will receive the largest member state refund of 193.5m with Malta getting the smallest payment of 64,499. The share for Irish farmers is just over 27m
The reimbursement mechanism was agreed during the 2013 CAP reform, and is now being applied for the first time.