Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013: EU Agreement
The Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013 has been agreed by the EU. The Programme will now be fully implemented as soon as possible.
Q: What does the announcement made on the 6 December mean? • The Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013 is part funded by the EU, through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. The details of what we will use our funding on therefore need to be approved by the European Commission. • We first submitted a draft of our Programme in May 2007. Since then we have worked closely with the Commission and have successfully negotiated agreement to our programme within the 6 month timescale envisaged. • • The EU Rural Development Committee, on which all member states are represented, has now given a positive opinion on the Programme. The legal Commission Decision formally approving the Programme should be published by the new year, allowing full implementation of the new Programme in January 2008.
Q: Will funding be lost as a result in the delay to the start of the Programme? • No. The delayed start doesn’t mean that any EU funding has been lost. We are continuing to make payments to agreement holders under existing and new agreements.
Q: Have you had to make changes to any schemes in order to get agreement to the Programme? • Yes. As a condition of EU approval for our Programme, we must make some changes to the Environmental Stewardship Scheme. Provisional Environmental Stewardship agreements, issued since January 1 2007, will
have to be changed accordingly. We have also had to make changes to the details of the Energy Crops Scheme. • Any Environmental Stewardship or Energy Crop Scheme agreements entered into before 1 January 2007 will not be affected by these changes.
Q: What changes have been made to Environmental Stewardship, and what do agreement holders have to do? • As a condition of EU agreement to our Programme, we will have to make the following changes to Environmental Stewardship:: 1. Withdrawal of the four Management Plan Options 2. Inclusion of scheme requirements related to the proposed revisions to the Nitrates Action Programme 3. Insertion of a Review Clause in Environmental Stewardship Agreements. • • • • Provisional agreements entered into from 1 January 2007 will need to be amended to reflect these changes. Environmental Stewardship agreements entered into before 1 January 2007 are not affected by these changes. Further details about the changes can be found in the more detailed q&a on Environmental Stewardship: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/sectf.htm Natural England will be contacting all provisional Environmental Stewardship agreement holders in the coming weeks with details of the changes affecting agreements. In the meantime, agreement holders should continue to carry out the management options set out in the current agreement. • Natural England wants provisional agreement holders to remain in the scheme, and will work with them to help them make the necessary changes.
Q: What will happen to those agreement holders who may now wish to withdraw from ES? • Natural England is committed to retaining all of the ES agreements entered into on a provisional basis and will work with customers to achieve this.
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However, any ES provisional agreement holders who cannot, with the removal of management plans, meet the 30 points/ha threshold will be entitled to withdraw from the scheme without penalty.
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Providing these agreement holders have met all the conditions of their agreement no payments will be recovered.
Q: Will people with a provisional Environmental Stewardship agreement lose money? • Anyone who has entered into an Environmental Stewardship agreement since 1 January 2007 will be eligible for payment for work they have undertaken so far under the provisional agreement.
Q: What changes have been made to the Energy Crops Scheme? • All plantings (miscanthus and short rotation coppice) supported will be at a rate of 40% of actual costs. For short rotation coppice this will mean a lower rate of support than we had hoped to offer. • This is because, following negotiations with the Commission and in common with some other Member States, we have moved the basis of this support from Axis 2 of the Rural Development Regulation to Axis 1. As a result, we are only able to pay a maximum of 40% of eligible establishment costs as opposed to our original intention to offer 60% of standard costs. • • However, the change to actual rather than standard costs might help some growers whose costs are significantly higher than the industry’s average. Any Energy Crop Scheme agreements entered into before 1 January 2007 will not be affected by these changes
Q: The Energy Crops Scheme opened for application on 1 October 2007. What will happen to the applications that have been submitted? • The Energy Crops Scheme opened in order to allow time for potential growers to make decisions ready for the planting season in the spring.
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Natural England will be contacting those who have applied. As we have had to make some changes to the Scheme details, we will be giving applicants the opportunity to revise or withdraw their applications.
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For further information about the Energy Crops can be found in the more detailed q&a: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/sectg.htm
Q: Is the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) open? • The Forestry Commission opened for EWGS applications for the 2008/09 claim year at the end of May 2007. The Forestry Commission began issuing contracts for Woodland Regeneration Grant in September and, in order to support work during the current planting season, from the beginning of December contracts were issued for urgent Woodland Creation and SSSI Woodland Improvement work. Once the legal decision formally approving the Programme is published, hopefully by the new year, the Forestry Commission will be issuing contracts for all grant types. For further information about the English Woodland Grant Scheme please see http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/sectf.htm
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Q: The Regional Development Agencies have not been able to support economic and social activity during the delay to the start of the Programme. When will I be able to apply for funding from the socioeconomic measures under the new programme? • Early in the new year. Once the legal decision formally approving the Programme is published, hopefully by the new year, RDAs will be able to enter into new contracts. The RDAs will not be entering into any new contracts before we have the formal legal decision approving the Programme from the EU. • • Each RDA will be publicising the specific regional arrangements for full implementation of the economic and social elements of the Programme. For further information about the funding the RDAs will be delivering, please see the more detailed q&a : http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/secti.htm
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For links to each of the RDAs’ websites, please see: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/rda.htm
Further detailed q&a on the whole Programme are available at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/rdp07_13/qa.htm