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The EC allocated 77 million euros to help farmers in the Czech Republic and other countries

by AI | 09.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The total damages in the Czech Republic are estimated to have reached 1.3 billion CZK.

Fruit and vegetable stand. Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa

Brussels/Prague – The European Commission today proposed to release 77 million euros (over 1.9 billion CZK) from the reserves to support farmers growing fruit, vegetables, and wine in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Poland, who were recently affected by adverse weather of unprecedented scale. The Commission also wants to support Portuguese wine producers. The Member States approved the proposal, the EC said in a press statement.

“We managed to negotiate aid from the European Commission for Czech fruit growers amounting to 15 million euros, i.e., roughly 378 million CZK. Additional money will be added from national sources,” wrote Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný (KDU-ČSL) on the social network X.

All countries can supplement this Union support by up to 200 percent from national resources. Therefore, the EU aid for Czech farmers will also be supplemented by money from the Czech state treasury. “We are projecting an amount of 100 million CZK from the state budget,” Minister Výborný said at a press conference today. According to estimates, the total damages amounted to 1.3 billion CZK. “We will by no means be able to compensate 100 percent of the damages. I have said this from the beginning,” the minister added, noting that it would nonetheless help fruit growers to withstand the current difficult period. The EU aid should arrive by the end of the calendar year.

“The large climatic and market fluctuations faced by these farmers once again show how important a strong agricultural reserve in the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is, which will enhance stability in the face of increasingly serious and unpredictable crises,” said Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.

This spring, unprecedented frosts hit the Czech Republic, parts of Austria, and parts of Poland, which, after unusually mild March temperatures, significantly affected orchards and vineyards. In Poland, additional damage was caused by hail. “National authorities will distribute the aid directly to farmers to compensate them for their economic losses,” the EC said in its statement. Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic will have to inform the Union executive retroactively of the distributed support and report, for example, the criteria for calculating individual support.