ANNOUNCEMENT 26 May 2015
In May 2015, the European Commission approved Sweden's Rural Development Programme, which allows the country to benefit from finance under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) 2014-2020 (see related state act).
NUMBER OF INTERVENTIONS
1
SOURCE
Factsheet on 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme for Sweden. European Commission. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/food-farming-fisheries/key_policies/documents/rdp-factsheet-sweden_en.pdf
On 26 May 2015, the European Commission approved the national Rural Development Programme (RDP) of Sweden, which allows the country to provide rural development support to national farmers. The total budget for measures related to competitiveness, marketing and efficiency purposes, co-financed by Sweden and the EU under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), was set at EUR 533 million (approx. USD 580 million).
The support primarily takes the form of financial grants and eligible costs to be subsidised run until 31 December 2023. While the main focus of Sweden's RDP is restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related agriculture and forestry, another key goal is to enhance the economic performance and the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. Specifically, the measures reported under this state act are oriented towards competitiveness, marketing and efficiency purposes and can be found in priority objectives 2, 3 and 5 of the RDPs.
The EU's CAP framework
The CAP framework is an EU-wide agricultural policy first launched in 1962 with the aim to support farmers and improve agricultural productivity as well as ensuring a stable supply of affordable food. It provides three main types of support: (i) income support measures, (ii) market measures; and (iii) rural development measures. The two first are primarily financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF); whilst the third and last support type is financed by the EAFRD (see related state act).