Press Release: Renewable energy: Commission welcomes Council agreement on extension of energy crop aid scheme to all Member States

The European Commission welcomes the 19 December 2006 decision by EU agriculture ministers to extend the energy crop premium introduced by the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reform to the new Member States which currently do not benefit from it. The decision will give farmers in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia the chance to receive €45 per hectare for growing energy crops. It will extend the maximum area which can benefit from this aid to 2 million hectares from 1.5 million hectares at the moment. In a further push to encourage the production of feedstocks for renewable energy production, the decision will also allow the Member States to grant national aid of up to 50 percent of the costs of establishing permanent crops on areas on which an application for the energy crop aid has been made.