Subject: Widespread weather damage to crops in Greece
Adverse weather conditions have caused widespread damage in several areas of Greece in June and July 2019. Hundreds of hectares of farmland have been totally destroyed, while livestock holdings have also sustained severe damage.
This is placing additional pressure on the already embattled small and medium-sized farms in Greece that have for years been struggling to cope with CAP provisions, not to mention the bailout terms accepted by successive governments. They are now bearing the brunt of these natural disasters, given that flood protection is not an EU priority, they are not covered by their Greek insurance scheme or by existing hail damage provisions and the vast majority of those affected are not eligible for emergency assistance under the State Aid Regulation.
In the context of CAP reform, discussions are now being held on ways of improving farm insurance provisions by opening up the sector to private insurance companies.
In view of this.
What measures will the Commission take to ensure full compensation for Greek farmers?
What steps will it take to improve disaster prevention systems?
How does it view the distinct possibility of already meagre incomes from small and medium-sized farms being further eroded under the new CAP arrangements
Answer given by Mr Hogan on behalf of the European Commission
(4 October 2019)
1. The 2014-2020 Greek rural development programme (RDP) provides EUR 40 million support to restore agricultural production potential and to appropriate prevention actions. In 2016, the Commission approved a state aid scheme established by Greece to compensate losses linked to natural disasters and adverse climatic event s (1). The Commission is taking measures to ease the difficulties farmers face in some Member States due to adverse weather conditions in 2019 (2).
2. The Commission strongly encourages Member States to make use of the risk management tools of the common agricultural policy (CAP). The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) supports financial participation in mutual funds and farm insurances (3), which could partially offset severe economic losses due to adverse climatic events. The Greek authorities did not choose to include these measures in their RDP but may activate them in the future if they so decide.
3. The Commission proposal for the CAP post 2020 (4) lays down the obligation for Member States to include risk management measures in their future CAP Strategic Plans. It also strengthens the objective of fairer distribution of direct payments in favour of small and medium-sized farms by requesting Member States to design, as part of their strategy, interventions in the form of complementary redistributive income support (5). Finally, the enhanced flexibility provided by the new delivery model will enable Member States to better cater for the specific needs of small and medium-sized farms.
⋅1∙ SA.45002 (2016/N). That scheme was authorised by the Commission on the basis of the EU rules on state aid applicable to the agricultural sector.
⋅2∙ By allowing affected farmers to receive higher advance payments for direct support and area based rural development measures
⋅3∙ By allowing affected farmers to receive higher advance payments for direct support and area based rural development measures, see Commission Implementing
Decision C(2019) 6536 of 17.09.2019
⋅4∙ COM(2018)392
⋅5∙ Such support should be (partly) financed by reducing direct payments over a certain threshold and capping them above EUR 100 000.