By Jeremy Smith
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission backed a planFriday to give 1 billion euros (795 million pounds) to farmersin Africa next year to help tackle high food prices and boostoutput, despite opposition by many EU states.
The EU cash, largely the result of underspending and leewayin the bloc's massive agriculture budget, comprises 750 millioneuros earmarked for 2008 and the remainder for 2009. Thisyear's amount could be given retrospectively from mid-June.
At least eight EU member countries, including Britain,Sweden and the Netherlands, have questioned the legality of thescheme but have not challenged the merit of the idea.
EU ministers and the European Parliament, which has alsovoiced doubts about using unspent EU farm funds, will have toagree to the plan before it can enter into force. TheCommission would like cash to start flowing in early January2009.
"There's a fairly broad consensus on the need to act here,given the crisis which is taking place," Commission spokesmanJohannes Laitenberger told a daily news briefing.
"In the Commission's opinion, this is the most efficientand most rapid instrument that could be used."
If approved, the money will be channelled to developingcountries through international or regional organizations, suchas the United Nations and World Food Program.
Four areas of financial support are envisaged, the main twobeing to improve access to farming "inputs" like fertilizersand seeds and ways to improve agricultural capacity andproduction.
But the most difficult debate may come after the summer:how to set eligibility criteria for recipient countries and howmuch cash will be allocated by country. Those negotiationsshould be concluded by December, the Commission says.
Criteria are expected to include how much food a countryproduces to feed itself, its political stability and socialvulnerability, its level of food price inflation and relianceon food imports -- including shipments of food aid.
So far, for the 2008 farm budget, the EU has been heavilyunderspending on classic market support measures such as exportsubsidies, public intervention buying of staple commodities andsubsidised private storage, EU officials say.
Agriculture eats up more than 40 percent of the EU's annualbudget, which for 2008 is planned at 120.7 billion euros.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who has warned thatthe global food price crisis could drive 100 million peopleinto extreme poverty, urged EU member countries to quicklyapprove the proposal.
"Millions of people are at risk because of the food andfuel crisis," Zoellick said, "I urge the European Council andEuropean Parliament to support this proposal as soon aspossible in order to provide relief to those most at risk fromhunger and malnutrition."
Advocacy group DATA, which campaigns to eradicate extremepoverty and AIDS in Africa, welcomed the proposal as a way forthe EU to help struggling African farmers.
"This proposal is significant and is a serious down paymentby Europe to help smallholder farmers in Africa fight backagainst hunger and poverty," DATA Executive Director JamieDrummond said in an email sent to Reuters.
Kofi Annan, the former UN chief who now chairs the Alliancefor a Green Revolution in Africa that helps small-scale Africanfarmers, said the proposal was an important step to improvingfood security across Africa.
(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington;Editing by Andrea Ricci)
