FEAGA

The EAGF is a grant fund managed by member states (shared management): the rules governing its operation are defined at the European level, but each country provides the implementation phase. In particular, national administrations are responsible for the management and control of income support for farmers in their country. As mentioned earlier, EAGF finances two components of the CAP.

Under the Component 1 – Income Support. , the EAGF provides farmers and farms with a “direct payment,” which in turn is organized into four main channels:

• Basic payments. Each year farmers submit an application for aid in which they declare all agricultural parcels on the farm. The actual payment is paid to active farmers based on the activation of payment entitlements held and calculated in relation to the eligible hectares declared by them;

• Greening payments. This type of payment supports farmers who adopt or maintain three practices that benefit the environment (particularly soil, ecosystems, and biodiversity): crop diversification, maintenance of permanent grassland, and retention of portions of land (ecological focus areas) to biodiversity-enhancing crops (trees, hedgerows, or fallow land);

• Payments for young farmers. Young farmers receive additional aid (for which member states must set aside a reserve and define specific criteria);

• Optional supplementary schemes. There are additional specific payment schemes and criteria in support of small farmers (simplified regime), to small and medium-sized farms (redistributive payment), farmers operating in areas subject to natural constraints and to sectors that are in difficulty and are of special importance for economic, social or environmental reasons (optional coupled support).

Under the Component 2 – Market Measures. , the EAGF finances measures to stabilize agricultural markets, prevent crises from worsening, stimulate demand, and help EU agricultural sectors better adapt to market changes. Market measures are in turn organized into three main channels:

• Public intervention. This form of intervention aims to prevent prices from falling to excessively low levels and is implemented for certain sectors that are particularly exposed to price fluctuations: wheat, durum wheat, barley and corn, rice, beef, butter and skim milk powder. It can be applied through a fixed price mechanism (defined by the EU to prevent it from falling below a sustainable level) or through competitive bidding (products are bought and stocked by governments or agencies of EU countries at a predetermined price, to be later resold under better market conditions);

• Product storage by the private sector. When market prices are low, the EU can provide help to private sector operators to bear the costs of storing their products for a certain period of time to temporarily reduce the impact of oversupply. It can be applied to white sugar, olive oil, beef, butter, cheese and skim milk powder, pork, sheep and goat meat, and flax fiber;

• Exceptional measures, implemented to avoid and/or mitigate the consequences of a sudden drop in prices, due to various factors (imbalance in markets, loss of consumer confidence due to the existence of public, animal or plant health risks, or other specific problems);

• Aid schemes for specific sectors (fruits and vegetables, wine, olive oil, beekeeping, hops). They aim to improve the ability of EU agricultural sectors to adapt to market conditions and increase their competitiveness and sustainability;

• This component also includes a program to promote healthy healthy eating in schools , for increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and of milk .