EU To Cough Up EUR280 Million In Aid To Dairy Farmers

Outward-bound EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has emptied out her handbag and announced EUR280 million in aid to it's beleaguered dairy farmers.

The funding, which still needs to be approved by the Finance Council, has won support from 21 of the 27 EU member states.

Boel said that the cash will effectively empty the 2010 kitty, leaving no money to fund any new requests for help from other agricultural sectors in next years budget.

It seems unclear at the moment how the money will be allocated. Possibly it will help fund the recent change to the rules that will now allow up to EUR15,000 of temporary aid to be paid by individual member states to each EU dairy farmer.