According to reports in the European press, France has won permission from the EU to hand out advance payments to its Caribbean banana growers still recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Dean in August 2007.
Although, EU countries are usually permitted to deliver their banana production subsidies as a lump sum between December and June, under exceptional circumstances a request can be made to Brussels to bring the payment period forward.
France was reportedly allowed to pay out up to half of its €381m budget for 2008 retroactively from mid-October, in order to subsidise its banana producers in Guadeloupe and Martinique.
