EU announces extra CAP funding to alleviate Russian ban

The European Commission is to make an additional €30m available to the Common Agricultural Policy fund to assist farmers across the EU.

The funding is being made available to alleviate the impact of Russian restrictions against certain EU agricultural products arising from the conflict in Ukraine.

"The Commission has today confirmed its intention to provide an additional €30m of EU funding for CAP promotion programmes starting in 2015, on top of the €60m that is foreseen annually in the CAP budget," the EU said in a statement.

Speaking in Brussels this morning, Agricultural Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said the money is being made available through an EU crisis fund.

"Promotion programmes are one of the CAP instruments which can be used over the medium term to address the market difficulties expected in several sectors as a result of the Russian ban, helping producers to find new sales outlets within and outside the EU," Commissioner Ciolos said

"Today's change means that €60 m of EU funding is available for promotion projects submitted by the end of this month.

"As this is co-funded by the promotion organisations themselves, this means that schemes worth at least €120m could start running in 2015.

"I strongly encourage agricultural organisations to make the most of this opportunity and to present ambitious promotion schemes in the coming weeks".