THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 637/2008 and Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009, and in particular Articles 50(11) and 52(9) and Article 67(1) and (2) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Pursuant to Article 50(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 Member States are to grant an annual payment to young farmers who are entitled to a payment under the basic payment scheme or the single area payment scheme.
(2)
Article 49(1) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 lays down the conditions for a legal person to be granted payment to young farmers. In particular, point (b) of the first subparagraph of that provision provides that a young farmer needs to exercise effective and long-term control over the legal person in terms of decisions related to management, benefits and financial risks either solely or jointly together with other farmers.
(3)
It is appropriate to allow Member States to decide whether such effective and long-term control may be held by young farmers jointly together with other farmers or rather by young farmers only. Indeed, the Member States are better placed to decide whether, in view of the effectiveness and the outreach of the scheme, while taking into consideration national circumstances and in view of the potential for reducing the administrative burden linked to checks, legal persons controlled jointly by young farmers and other farmers who do not meet the young farmer conditions should be granted the young farmers payment. Such possibility also enables Member States to better align the provisions for access to young farmer support under Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 and under Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council. As the reasons for allowing Member States to take such decisions are structural, it is appropriate to provide that they be taken only once. Such decisions should be taken at the latest prior to the opening of the application period in 2017.
(4)
In view of those considerations, Member States should decide, taking due account of general principles of Union law, whether or not to require sole control by young farmers for those legal persons or groups of natural persons which have already received the payment for young farmers in the past where the control was exercised jointly together with farmers who are not young farmers.
(5)
It is further appropriate to clarify that such effective and long-term control is to be held in each year in respect of which the legal person applies for the payment under the young farmers scheme.
(6)
Pursuant to Chapter 1 of Title IV of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, Member States may grant coupled support to farmers under the conditions laid down in that Chapter. That Chapter is supplemented by Chapter 5 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014.
(7)
The second subparagraph of Article 53(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 lays down rules in relation to the per unit amount of coupled support. For the sake of better targeting and thus making a more effective use of coupled support, it is appropriate to allow economies of scale to be taken into account and, accordingly, modulated per unit amounts within a single measure to be fixed.
(8)
In light of the introduction of modulated per unit amounts within a single measure, it is appropriate to modify the requirements on the information to be notified by Member States in accordance with Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014.
(9)
In accordance with Article 52(5) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, coupled support may only be granted to the extent necessary to create an incentive to maintain current levels of production in the sectors or regions concerned. In view of this requirement, point 3(i) of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 provides that Member States are to notify the amounts for the financing of each voluntary coupled support measure. For the sake of an efficient use of the financial resources available for coupled support, it is appropriate, however, to allow for certain flexibility in the use of those amounts per measure in the form of transfers of funds between measures.
(10)
Such flexibility should however not affect the compliance of the support with the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, including the requirements to be considered as falling within the ‘Blue Box’ of the Agreement on Agriculture concluded during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. In particular, transfers of funds between measures should not create an incentive to produce beyond current levels of production. Furthermore, such transfers should not result in the support measures notified to the Commission pursuant to Article 54 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 and Article 67 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 becoming void.
(11)
In order to ensure the correct application of the rules on voluntary coupled support, Member States should notify the Commission of their decisions to transfer funds between voluntary coupled support measures. Such notification should also include a justification that the transfer does not create an incentive for production increase for the purposes of Article 52(5) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 and that the transfer does not result in the decisions notified to the Commission pursuant to Article 54 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 and Article 67(1) and (2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 becoming void.
(12)
Article 54 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 aims at avoiding accumulation of support by different coupled support measures with an identical objective. For the sake of clarity, it is appropriate to specify that no such accumulation of support exists where the same farmer benefits from different coupled support measures in the same sector or region if those measures target different types of farming or specific agricultural sectors within that sector or region.
(13)
Pursuant to Article 52(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014, the regions referred to in Article 52(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 are to be defined by the Member States in accordance with objective and non-discriminatory criteria. It is appropriate to include the respective notification obligations into Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014.
(14)
On the basis of the experience gained from the notifications made in August 2014 and in order to simplify the Member States' notifications, it is appropriate to remove the notification obligation in point 3(d) of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 concerning the criteria fixed for the purpose of defining the targeted sectors and productions.
(15)
Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(16)
In accordance with Article 53(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, Member States may, by 1 August 2016, review their decisions on voluntary coupled support. With the introduction of the possibility to fix modulated per unit amounts within a single measure, it is appropriate to derogate from that provision so as to allow, when certain conditions are fulfilled, a corresponding review of decisions relating to those measures that were notified by 1 August 2014 with effect from 2016.
(17)
As this Regulation concerns aid applications relating to calendar year 2016 and subsequent years, it is appropriate that it applies from 1 January 2016,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: