The European Commission has approved a latest tranche of 14 programmes to promote agricultural products in the European Union and in third countries. The total budget of the programmes, running for a period of three years, is € 53,86 million of which the EU contributes € 27,15 million. The selected programmes cover fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, milk and milk products, PDOs (Protected Designations of Origin), PGIs (Protected Geographical Indications) and TSGs (Traditional Specialities Guaranteed), olive oil, organic products, ornamental horticulture and meat.

Within the information and promotion scheme, the Commission services received by mid-June 2012, 34 programmes targeting the internal market and the third countries as part of the second wave of programme submission. Following an evaluation procedure, 14 programmes were selected for co-financing out of which 10 target the internal market and 4 target third countries. Two of the selected programmes were proposed by more than one Member State, while third country programmes aim at the Russian, Chinese, North American and Latin American, Norwegian, Japanese and South-East Asian markets.

For the whole of year 2012 the European Commission approved 34 programmes in total submitted by the Member States corresponding to a total budget of € 124,6 million, out of which € 63,1 million co-financed by the EU.