§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of the farm workforce is aged under 35 years in each European Union member nation; and how much financial aid was claimed by each European Union member nation under the EU system of grants and interest rate subsidies to assist young farmers to enter the agriculture industry in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [53202]
§ Mr. MorleyThe table shows the latest available information from Eurostat (the Statistics Office for the European Community) on the proportion of the agricultural work force aged under 35 years in each member state. It was not obligatory for member states to collect information on ages of all workers in 1993 and 1997.
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Proportion of workforce aged under 35 years 1 Percentage EU member state 1989–90 1993 1995 1997 Belgium 20 19 23 21 Denmark 20 — 31 32 Germany 30 28 27 25 Greece 19 23 18 17 Spain 20 — 22 22
Proportion of workforce aged under 35 years 1 Percentage EU member state 1989–90 1993 1995 1997 France 21 21 20 20 Ireland 26 31 30 30 Italy 17 16 15 16 Luxembourg 26 26 25 23 Netherlands 32 — 32 — Austria — — 31 29 Portugal 30 — 26 25 Finland — — 29 29 Sweden — — 17 — United Kingdom 28 — 24 — Total EU 12 22 — 20 — Total EU15 — — 21 — 1 Excludes non-regular workers (eg seasonal, casual and gang labour) Source:
EC Farm Structure Surveys—Eurostat
The EU regulation on rural development, which was implemented in 2000, permits member states to provide funds for the setting-up of young farmers as part of their rural development programmes. Expenditure from the EU budget for these schemes, by member state, is shown in the following table. Prior to 2000 other EU member states may have provided aid to young farmers via structural fund programmes or national schemes. We do not have information on any such schemes or the levels of expenditure.
Rural development programmes EU expenditure on setting up young farmers euro million 2000 2001 Belgium 0.7 0 Denmark 0 0 Germany 1.0 2.4 Greece 0 0 Spain 1.2 4.7 France 22.8 29.8 Ireland 0 0 Italy 19.5 42.0 Luxembourg 0.1 0.3 Netherlands 0 0 Austria 8.0 8.3 Portugal 0 0 Finland 0 0 Sweden 0.3 0.8 UK 0 0 Total EU15 53.6 88.2