The European Council adopted a regulation which allows Member States, as an exceptional measure, to pay up to €7 000 to farmers and up to €50 000 to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) active in processing, marketing or development of agricultural products or cotton, except fishery products. The aim is to make use of available funds under existing rural development programmes to provide support to farmers and SME's worst-hit by the COVID-19 crisis and to address the liquidity and cash-flow problems stemming from the closures of shops, markets and restaurants. The regulation has been published here and the new exceptional rural development measure can now be used by Member States/regions in their RDPs. 

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