Taormina, Italy, March 23 - EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said on Friday a sweeping plan to reform the bloc's fruit and vegetable sector has gained support and may be agreed in June.
In January, Fischer Boel proposed a plan to shake up the annual 1.5 billion euros of subsidies paid to farmers by breaking the link between how much a farmer produces and the amount of aid received from Brussels.
Speaking at an agriculture conference in Taormina in Sicily, she said the so-called decoupling plan has strong support.
"Surely, there will be political discussions. But I hope it can be completed in June 2007," Fischer Boel said.
If European Union farm ministers agree, the subsidies would be calculated by area based on historical payments for each fruit or vegetable product, as part of the streamlined single farm payment scheme agreed under the EU's agriculture reform in 2003.