EU to help pay for national plans to boost poultry

BRUSSELS, Mar 29 (Reuters) EU governments will have to pay only half the cost of programmes they undertake to restore confidence in the poultry sector, where sales have slumped due to fears about bird flu, the EU executive today said.

''There is currently no possibility to provide EU aid to take account of market problems linked to a fall in sales caused by a loss of consumer confidence,'' the European Commission said, adding that it would now alter EU poultry market regulations.

''Because of the gravity of the current market crisis, the Commission now proposes to co-finance 50 per cent of the cost of market support measures linked to a drop in consumption and prices of eggs and poultry,'' it said in a statement.

The legal change to the EU poultry regulations will have to be approved by the European Parliament and by EU agriculture ministers, probably at their next meeting in April.

If all goes smoothly, EU governments would then submit plans for boosting their poultry sectors. All measures, such as compensating farmers for temporary reductions in output of eggs and poultry meat, would first have to win Commission approval.

REUTERS SY RAI1548