SCOTTISH sheep farmers affected by the foot-and-mouth outbreak are expected to receive emergency payments within the next week after the European Commission approved the scheme.
The £19 million funding is part of a wider package of measures to help the Scottish agricultural community. The cash was delayed after the European Commission asked for further details of the aid scheme.
The package was announced by ministers las
t month, but payments cannot legally be made to farmers until the Commission publishes the scheme.
The European Commission has now agreed to publish the scheme on its website as soon as details have been translated into all official languages.
Richard Lochhead, the rural affairs secretary at Holyrood, welcomed the news.
He said: "Our farmers and crofters have been very badly hit by a crisis not of their making - the outbreaks of foot-and-mouth in the south of England.
"We are pleased that the European Commission, once it had received the additional information requested from us, acted very quickly in agreeing to publish the scheme.
"We pressed hard for this and managed to persuade them of our case.
"This should allow us to make payments within the next week or so.
"I am delighted that this scheme can now go ahead as soon as the Commission publishes it on their website."
Farmers and crofters will be offered payments of £6 per breeding ewe under the Scottish Ewes Scheme.
