BRUSSELS, Aug 23 (AFP) - The European Union could bring forward the start of aid payments to farmers in EU newcomer states including agricultural heavyweight Poland, the European Commission said Monday.
The Commission, the EU's executive arm, was "in principle in favour" of the request made by Poland and some of the other nine countries which joined the EU in May, but EU governments must approve the decision, a spokeswoman said.
Under their accession accords the EU newcomers' farmers are due to begin receiving direct aid payments from December 1. But some have asked for payments to be authorized earlier, from October 16, said spokeswoman Beate Gminder.
"The commission is in principle in favour of this. We are preparing a project for a decision which would need approval of the member states ... the decision could be adopted before the end of September," she added.
The new EU member states, many more farm-dependent than the older members, pressed hard during entry negotiations to benefit from the generous subsidies long enjoyed in western Europe.
In the end they were forced to accept an agreement to phase in increases in agricultural aid up to the levels of the older EU member states, starting at 25 percent this year and reaching parity only after 10 years.
Agriculture swallows up to a half of the EU's annual 100 million euro budget, even after last year's reform of the long-disputed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Overall the EU budget for farm aid to the 10 new EU countries is 1.2 billion for 2005, said a spokeswoman.