Memo: Commissioner Cioloş’ Statement on the Aid for the needy scheme following the Agriculture Council on the 14 of November 2011

The European scheme for the most deprived is one of the main sources of food supply for European charities.

Following the European Court ruling of 13/04/2011, which deemed that the arrangements in 2009 to provide food bought on the open market were illegal relative to the existing regulation, the 2012 plan had to be adopted with a much reduced budget. On June 10, 2011, the Commission was obliged to adopt a 2012 plan limited to the purchase of available public intervention stocks - a budget of just €113.5 million - less than one quarter of the previous annual schemes.