Summary of newsmakers from the previous day 29.6. 2005

PGRLF reviewed more applications last year and mediated larger volume of credits

Supporting and Guarantee Rural and Forest Fund (PGRLF) negotiated 2660 requests in total for credit support last year by which it exceeded a last three years average by 30 percents. Mediated credits for agriculture were next to eight billions of crowns compared to roughly 6,1 billions in the previous year. It was reported at today’s conference by representatives of the Fund, which provides applicants mainly with interest dotations and gives guarantees for parts of credits. Dotations for a fund from a state budget was about 630 millions crowns last year and the PGRLF added other roughly 342 millions crowns from own resources. A yearly volume of provided support in agriculture reached almost one milliard crowns in such a way.

Twentieth case of BSE in CR confirmed

A check test in the National Reference Laboratory for BSE Diagnostics in the State Veterinary Institute confirmed today that a cow, died on June 19, 2005, suspect of the disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was actually ill. A spokesman of the State Veterinary Administration CR (SVS), Josef Duben, informed about it. He repeated that the cow was born on May 21, 1999 and belonged to a breeder Zetka Strážník a.s., farm Studenec, Semily region. ‘The number of peers which will be necessary to destroy will not be big, in total 117, from it it will be 108 cows in the farm Studenec’, stated the spokesman.

Crisis solution is only radical reform of budget, expert asserts

A Belgian professor André Sapir suggests a substantial retrenching of agricultural expenditures. However, he has not the EU support. According to Belgian professor André Sapir who in a period of European Commission of Roman Prodi led a group of experts analyzing EU expenditures, the EU finances need substantial changes. He suggested so that the EU budget stayed at a level of 1 percent of the Gross national income just as richer member states wish, but the budget externalization should go according to him only towards an economic growth. The Union, according to Sapir, should also direct its finances to manage an enlargement by new countries.

MZe specifies conditions of applications for milk quotas

The Ministry of Agriculture of the CR (MZe) apologizes for a mistake introduced in a press release with the name ‘Till July 18 it is possible to ask for increase of present ones and allocation of new individual milk quotas’ from June 27, 2005, in which it is introduced by mistake a possibility to ask for “assigning of a new individual reference amount of milk for supplies”. Since it is dealt with an extraordinary allocation of intranational reserve, it is not possible to ask for the mentioned possibility.