• The Government of Spain managed to get the European Commission to increase the amount of the CAP advance from 50% to 70% in this campaign, with the aim of providing liquidity to farmers and ranchers. • The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food makes the corresponding transfers to the autonomous communities so that they can make the advance payment to the beneficiaries starting next week and until November 30.

October 13, 2023 – The Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), will advance, from Monday, October 16 and until November 30, 664 million euros to the farmers of Castilla y León as advance payment of the direct aid of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In total, the autonomous communities that have requested funds to make the payment of the advances to the beneficiaries of the direct aid of the CAP will receive about 2.5 billion euros, corresponding to the aid applications presented in 2023.

Under normal conditions, this payment represents the advance of 50% of direct CAP payments. In the current campaign, Spain asked the European Commission - which has finally authorized it - to increase that advance to 70% in a campaign marked by the rainfall deficit, among other circumstances, with the objective of providing more liquidity to farmers and ranchers. A 70% that, if used in its entirety by the autonomous communities as a whole, would mean some 3.4 billion euros in advance payments.

The advance will also help farmers to cope in better conditions with the start of the next agricultural campaign, following the difficulties of the past, which was marked by drought and economic disturbances resulting from the war in Ukraine.

The rest of the direct payments of the 2023 campaign of the CAP must be paid by all the autonomous communities from December 1. By the end of the final payment period, on 30 June 2024, EUR 4,875 million will have been paid in direct aid to the sector.

The autonomous communities participating in the system of prefinancing the CAP funds, coordinated by the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEGA), have communicated their forecasts of payments of advances in an amount close to 2.5 billion euros, of which just over 1.3 billion euros will be paid between 16 and 20 October.

The EAGGF publishes on its website the data of the funds that each autonomous community requests weekly to make these payments, which can be consulted in the section Prefinancing EAGF funds | fega.gob.es.

The Basque Country, which does not participate in the pre-financing system mentioned above, also plans to pay advances for direct aid in this 2023 campaign.

For its part, the Canary Islands has its own aid model, the so-called Programme of Specific Options for Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI).

First CAP campaign 2023-27

The 2023 campaign was the first to implement the new CAP 2023-27. The payment deadlines have been maintained as in previous campaigns, despite the fact that the period of applications was delayed compared to previous campaigns, since it began on March 1 and lasted until June 30, 2023, thanks to the coordinated effort between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the autonomous communities.

In this 2023 campaign, advances may be paid for the following aid schemes:

• Basic income support for sustainability and its complementary payments (redistributive payment and payment to young people).
• Ecoregimes.
• Associated aid (with the exception of the associated aid for the fattening of calves and the specific payment for cotton, which may be paid from 1 December).