Brussels considers banana aid reform

The European Commission proposed 20.9.06 a thoroughgoing reform of the aid scheme to banana producers, which aims to bring the system into line with reforms in the other agricultural sectors, while ensuring a fair standard of living for EU banana producers and taking account of the particularities of the regions where bananas are grown. The proposal follows a thorough debate with all interested parties and an in-depth assessment of the impact of the reform. The Commission has come out clearly in favour of abolishing the current compensatory aid scheme for banana growers, and adopting the so-called “POSEI” option. This would add money used to support banana producers to the so-called POSEI programme, which supports agricultural production in the outermost regions of the EU. For bananas produced in regions other than the outermost regions, the money would be transferred to the Single Payment Scheme which applies to agricultural products covered by previous reforms. Following adoption by the Council, the Commission wants the new rules to apply from the 2007 marketing year.

European Commission: Press Release: IP/06/1219: CAP Reform: Commission proposes new banana regime http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1219&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: DG Agriculture and Rural Development: Bananas http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/bananas/index_en.htm

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