EU seven-year rural plan cleared

THE EU’s seven-year rural development programme has been cleared to proceed by agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels earlier this week.

They agreed new rules for modulation — diverting money to rural development from farmers’ single payments. It was decided to allow extra modulation in just two member states, the UK and Portugal. The UK conceded to put in more treasury cash.

The European Parliament had blocked the European Commission’s proposal to allow 20% of farmers’ direct payments to be diverted to rural development projects, at the discretion of each member state.