Aids and refunds related to the common organisation of markets in agricultural products

KEY POINTS

The regulation is based on Article 43(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), meaning that it is a regulation adopted by the Council. [Readers should note that this is in contrast to measures under Article 43(2) TFEU which are adopted by means of the ordinary legislative procedure (see Judgment of the Court of 7 September 2016, Federal Republic of Germany v European Parliament and Council of the European Union, Case C-113/14).]

The legislation sets out conditions for:

• reference thresholds¹ for cereals, rice, sugar, beef and veal, milk and dairy products such as butter, pigmeat and olive oil;
• public intervention prices² for wheat, durum wheat, barley, maize, rice, skimmed milk powder, butter, beef and veal;
• ceilings on wheat (3 million tonnes), butter (50,000 tonnes) and skimmed milk powder (109,000 tonnes) which the EU may buy and take off the market over a certain period;
• aid for private storage for products ranging from sugar and olive oil to cheese and beef;
• EU finance for subsidised fruit, vegetables and milk for schools;
• charges, refunds and quotas on sugar production until 30 September 2017.

The European Commission uses implementing acts to:

• review and adjust reference thresholds in light of production costs and market trends;
• increase or reduce public intervention prices;
• organise tendering procedures for public intervention and storage aids;
• set the maximum level of EU aid for school fruit, vegetables and milk and assess these every 3 years;
• fix the level of export refunds according to market conditions.

The Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets assists the Commission in implementing the legislation.