State aid: Commission adopts new rules for State Aids in Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Areas
26 Jun 2014 03:46 PM
The
European Commission has set out revised and updated criteria under which Member
States can support agriculture, forestry and rural areas, in line with EU state
aid rules. This is part of the Commission's State Aid Modernisation
(SAM) initiative, aimed at fostering growth and competitiveness in the EU, and
goes hand in hand with the Common Agricultural Policy, more particularly with
the new rural development policy of the EU. In more precise terms, the
Commission has adopted a new Agricultural Block Exemption
Regulation (ABER) and new Guidelines for State aid
in the agricultural and forestry sectors and in rural areas 2014 to
2020 (GL). ABER allows the granting of certain categories of
State aid to the agricultural and forestry sectors and in rural areas without
prior notification to the Commission. The GL aim at setting the general
criteria which will be used by the Commission when assessing the compliance of
aid with the internal market. These new rules will apply from July 1, 2014.
These new ABER and Guidelines were developed following wide consultation with
the public and stakeholders (see IP/14/185).
Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development
Dacian Cioloş said: "These new rules should improve efficiency on
State Aid issues by speeding up approval procedures and cutting red tape for
public authorities dealing with State aids in the agriculture sector. These
improvements should therefore enable potential beneficiaries to benefit from
State aids more quickly".
Key
features are:
-
Allowing many more block exemptions by widening
the scope of ABER. For example, it will be possible in future for
Member States to grant aid to the forestry sector and to smaller enterprises in
rural areas without having to go through lengthy notification and authorisation
procedures. A simple information sheet to be sent to the Commission and
ensuring compliance with the conditions of the new ABER will
suffice.
-
Widening the scope of GL. For
example, it will be possible for Member States to grant aid to compensate for
damage caused by protected animals and to purchase breeding animals for the
improvement of the genetic quality of the herd.
-
One window approach. Member States
will only have to go through one administrative
procedure vis-à-vis the Commission (i.e. a Rural
Development Programme approval procedure, while merely informing the Commission
of their block exemptions for the purpose of the State aid aspects) and, as far
as possible, Member States will deal with only one department (or DG) inside
the Commission when seeking clearance for their Rural Development
Programmes.
-
Reducing administrative
burdens. The new rules proposed by the Commission significantly
reduce the administrative burden for public authorities when dealing with State
aids in the agriculture sector and speed up procedures. Therefore, potential
beneficiaries will also be able to profit from the respective planned State
aids more rapidly.
The
texts of the ABER and GL are available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/stateaid/legislation/index_en.htm
Background
The
new ABER and GL are part of the Commission's SAM initiative (see IP/12/458), setting an ambitious modernisation program fostering
sustainable, smart and inclusive growth by encouraging more effective aid
measures and focusing the Commission’s scrutiny on cases with the biggest
impact on competition. As part of this package, the Commission has already
reformed its state aid procedures (see IP/13/728), exempted more aid measures from prior notification to
the Commission (see IP/13/587) and introduced new transparency requirements (see IP/14/588). The Commission has also adopted new guidelines on state
aid for broadband (see IP/12/1424), regional development (see IP/13/569), cinema (see IP/13/1074), airports and airlines (see IP/14/172), risk finance (see IP/14/21), energy and environment (see IP/14/400) as well as R&D and innovation (see IP/14/586).
In
December 2013, the legislator adopted the legal instruments related to the
Multi Annual Financing Framework, as regards the new Common Agricultural
Policy, notably the new Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on support for rural development by the
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Council
Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005.
On
18 December 2013, the Commission adopted a new agricultural de minimis
regulation on small amounts of aid (de minimis aid) in the primary agricultural
production sector, raising the ceiling and clarifying the definition of small
amounts of aid (de minimis aid) that can be considered not to constitute state
aid and a new general de minimis Regulation which applies to processing in the
agricultural sector and to the forestry sector.