Agricultural Processing and Marketing Grants Regulations 2000 (S.I. No. 3046 of 2000).

The Community legislation supplemented by these Regulations inter alia provides for support to be paid from the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund towards investment for the improvement of the processing and marketing of agricultural products. The Regulations operate within the scope of these provisions to enable grant to be paid towards expenditure incurred in connection with operations involving such improvements. The Regulations implement a part of the England Rural Development Programme approved by the European Commission under Article 44 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999, and provide for the payment of grants by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food any expenditure that he may prove if it is expenditure which is in accordance with that part of the ERDP which concerns the improvement of the processing and marketing of agricultural products (reg. 4(3)). In addition, the Regulations provide for the making of claims for, and the payment of, grants following approval (regs. 5 and 6) and also contain provisions concerning the provision of information (reg. 7) and record-keeping (reg. 8).