The European Union plans to allow German farmers to receive hundreds of millions of euros in advanced aid to compensate them for rain and flood damage, EU officials said today.
The decision, by the EU's weekly grain management committee, still has to be officially rubber-stamped by the European Commission next week.
It will allow Germany to distribute some €516 million in direct payments to arable farmers, due for the next 2002/2003 financial year, ahead of time.
The EU is also considering a wider package of measures to help Germany recover from the devastating floods.
With the country facing total damages running to billions of euros, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has postponed a planned 2003 tax increase by a year to free up funds for relief.
The rains hit at a vulnerable time, just when harvesting was due to start and there are fears much of the German wheat crop will now be only fit for animal feed.
The Commission also plans to allow Austria to distribute some 30,000 tonnes of grain to its own flood-hit farmers from intervention stores.