The Spanish Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, is advancing €227.8 million from today, October 16th, until November 30th, to paying agencies in Aragon that have requested funds to make advance payments to beneficiaries of direct Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aid. These payments correspond to aid applications submitted in 2024.
In total, the Ministry is advancing €2.601 billion to 14 beneficiary autonomous communities. The advance payment is optional for paying agencies; therefore, the competent authorities of the autonomous communities decide whether or not to make advance payments, as well as the timing and which aid lines to pay from those foreseen in national regulations. It should be noted that prior controls must be carried out to guarantee the proper use of European Union funds.
The European Commission has authorized the payment of up to 70% of the amount of direct aid in advance, in order to provide greater liquidity to farmers and ranchers in the Union at the beginning of the agricultural campaign and to help them cope with the impact of the current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and adverse weather conditions in various areas.
The regular payment period for direct aid will begin on December 1st, from which date the different autonomous communities will be able to pay up to 90% of the amount. Payment of 100% of the aid will be authorized from May 1st, 2025, once the final unit amounts have been calculated. This regular period will end on June 30th, although residual payments can be made until October 15th, the date on which the fiscal year of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEAGA) ends and on which €4.882 billion in direct aid to the sector will have been paid.
The autonomous communities participating in the CAP fund pre-financing system, coordinated by the Spanish Guarantee Fund for Agriculture (FEGA), have communicated their estimated advance payments for an amount slightly higher than €2.6 billion; and they expect to be able to pay around €1.8 billion in the second half of October.
The FEGA publishes on its website the data of the funds that each autonomous community requests weekly to make these payments, which can be consulted in the section ‘Open Data: Pre-financing’ Pre-financing of EAGF funds on its website. The agency also publishes the payments finally made on a weekly basis in the section ‘Weekly payments EAGF 2023-2027.
DIRECT PAYMENTS INTERVENTIONS THAT CAN BE BROUGHT FORWARD
The direct aid interventions for which advance payments can be made in 2024 are as follows:
– Basic Income Support for Sustainability and its complementary payments (redistributive payment and youth payment).
– Ecoregimes
– coupled support (with the exception of the calf fattening coupled support and the specific payment for cotton, which can be paid from 1 December onwards)