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The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €60 million Flemish scheme to compensate livestock farmers for voluntarily and definitively giving up livestock farming aimed at reducing nitrogen deposition in nature conservation areas in Flanders.
The scheme, which will run until 31 December 2027, will be open to micro or small and medium-sized livestock farmers in Flanders that voluntarily and irrevocably give up breeding activities in special areas of conservation or where their sites' nitrogen deposition load reaches certain level.
Under the scheme, which is composed of three measures, the aid will take the form of direct grants. The first measure compensates all beneficiaries of the scheme for up to 120% of the losses incurred due to the closure of livestock capacity, which relate to the value of assets (such as buildings, material and animals), the costs for the demolition of farm buildings and the cost of severance payments to affected employees. Under the two other, complementary, measures, farmers can get further support in the form of (i) compensation of up to €10,000 for business advice and (ii) investment aid for the conversion to arable farming, of up to 40% of the costs (65% for young farmers) and for a maximum amount of aid equal to €600,000 per beneficiary.
June 20, 2024/EC/ European Union.
https://ec.europa.eu/