(BRUSSELS) - The EU Commission on Wednesday proposed expanding its food programme for the most deprived people in the bloc by boosting the budget by two-thirds and increasing the range of products provided.

"The recent hike in food prices has hit some people very hard. We need to extend this very successful scheme and increase the budget so that we can help as many people as possible," said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, announcing the initiative to begin next year.

At the moment some 43 million people throughout the EU cannot afford a meal with meat or fish every second day, according to the commission.

"This is a concrete way in which the European Union can help some of the least fortunate people in our society," she added.

"We don't just care about markets' reactions we do care about people." she stressed.

The move is especially necessary as European stocks of farm products, -- so-called "intervention stocks" -- "are largely a thing of the past, we need to allow food to be bought from the market and according to national nutritional preferences," said Fischer Boel.

The scheme was established in 1987, allowing EU member states to release public stocks of surplus food for use as food aid.

"Since then, the situation has changed," the commission said in a statement.

"Stocks are at an all-time low, the number of needy people has increased and food prices have recently risen sharply.

"This is why the commission believes it is vital to increase spending on the scheme, and to allow food purchases on the open market on a permanent basis."

From next year the EU executive wants to increase the programme from 300 million euros (426 million dollars) to 500 million euros.

Co-financing of the scheme, between EU central funds and member states, will be gradually phased in from 2010.

However member states are free to decide whether to participate in the scheme, at present 19 of the 27 do so.

Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are among the nations not currently using the system.

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