Information communicated by Member States regarding State aid granted under Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production of agricultural products and amending Regulation (EC) No 70/2001

2011/C 79/07

Aid No: XA 189/10

Member State: The Netherlands

Region: Provincie Overijssel

Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving an individual aid: Uitvoeringsbesluit Subsidies Overijssel 2007 (UBS 2007), paragraaf 8.34 Stimulering toepassing stikstofemissiebeperkende maatregelen en technieken op landbouwbedrijven in het kader van Natura 2000.

Legal basis: Wet inrichting landelijk gebied,

Algemene Wet Bestuursrecht

Algemene Subsidieverordening Overijssel 2005 en PS-besluit van 11 oktober 2006, kenmerk PS/2006/760 (PS hebben op grond van artikel 11, lid 4 van de Wet inrichting landelijk gebied de bevoegdheid tot het vaststellen van steunmaatregelen ten laste van het investeringsbudget overgedragen aan GS).

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Overall planned expenditure is EUR 20 million for the 2010-2016 period.

Maximum aid intensity:

Date of implementation: Implementation will start after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, as set out in Article 20(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 (OJ L 358, 16.12.2006, p. 3).

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: From the day after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, as set out in Article 20(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006, until 31 December 2016.

Objective of aid: The reduction of nitrogen emissions from agricultural holdings in Overijssel.

To that end, the following Articles of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 are being applied:

Article 4: Investment in agricultural holdings,

Article 15: Provision of technical support in the agricultural sector.

For the eligible costs, please refer to the section ‘Maximum aid intensity’.

Sector(s) concerned: The scheme applies to small and medium-sized enterprises in all sectors involved in the production of agricultural products.

Name and address of the granting authority:

Website: http://www.overijssel.nl/loket/subsidies/uitvoeringsbesluit

You can consult the full text of the subsidy scheme (Section 8.34 UBS) through the above link. Do not click on the link, but simply copy the address in the Windows Internet Explorer toolbar.

Other information: —

Aid No: XA 192/10

Member State: France

Region: These actions can also be funded by those local authorities (regional and general councils) that so wish, provided the conditions for the intervention of the French agricultural risk management fund (FNGRA) and the ceilings set by the Rural Code and Maritime Fishing Code are complied with.

Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving an individual aid: Indemnisation par le Fonds national de gestion des risques en agriculture (FNGRA) et par les collectivités territoriales des dommages causés aux exploitations agricoles par les calamités.

Legal basis: Article L 361-5 du code rural et de la pêche maritime.

Articles L 1511-1 et suivants du code général des collectivités territoriales.

Arrêté interministériel du 29 décembre 2010 fixant la liste des risques considérés comme assurables pour la gestion du Fonds national de gestion des risques en agriculture.

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: EUR 360 million:

EUR 180 million from the Fund and EUR 180 million from regional or local authorities; expenditure is usually multi-annual. However, the amount of expenditure depends on the scale of the climatic disaster: it is therefore, by definition, unforeseeable.

Maximum aid intensity: Up to a maximum of 80 % (in an area that is not less-favoured) or 90 % (in a less-favoured area) combined aid from the French agricultural risk management fund (FNGRA) and a local or regional authority.

In accordance with Article 11(8) of the Regulation, the compensation offered must be reduced by 50 % unless it is given to farmers who have taken out insurance covering at least 50 % of their average annual production or production-related income and the statistically most frequent climatic risks in the region concerned.

Date of implementation: From the date of receipt of the acknowledgement of receipt showing the identification number of the measure and publication of the summary of the measure on the website of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: Until the end of 2013

Objective of aid: This scheme is submitted in the context of Article 11 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006. It is intended to provide compensation for losses sustained by farmers due to exceptional adverse climatic events that have significantly affected agricultural production.

Where a climatic event of exceptional significance occurs, the prefect of the department concerned may, if they consider it necessary, order an enquiry to be carried out in order to obtain the necessary information on the event responsible for the loss, in particular regarding its exact nature, exceptional character and the damage observed.

On the basis of the enquiry and the opinion of the departmental committee of experts that they have called upon, the prefect asks if appropriate, for the event under consideration to be acknowledged as an agricultural disaster.

After considering the matter and obtaining an opinion from the National Insurance Committee, the Minister for Agriculture issues a decree acknowledging that an agricultural disaster has affected specific property and a specific area.

In order for an event to be acknowledged, a loss must be observed which is significant in comparison with the calculated reference value for a given area and a given production.

This reference value, called a scale (‘barème’) in the Rural Code, is drawn up at departmental level and corresponds to the yield over an average three-year period based on the five previous years, excluding the highest and the lowest values. The prices included in the scale are those observed locally for the crop in question during the season preceding that in which the scale was drawn up.

Losses that are officially recognised by the public authorities as caused by a natural disaster, must exceed 30 % (or 42 % if the production receives CAP coupled aid) of average annual production, within the conditions laid down by Article 2(8) of Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006.

The amount of losses eligible for compensation is reduced by any amount received under an insurance scheme and any costs not incurred as a result of the climatic event.

Any sectors that are known to be insurable, such as in particular insurable farm buildings, are not eligible for compensation from the French agricultural risk management fund (FNGRA), as there is already an appropriate insurance for them.

To be eligible for the agricultural natural disaster procedure, farmers must be able to prove that their main production facilities are insured (in particular indemnity insurance).

Aid is paid directly to each farmer concerned. It will be decided whether to grant the aid within a maximum of three years following the natural disaster and payments will be made within a maximum of four years.

Aid is granted within the limits of the available budget and is reserved for farms whose production losses are over 30 % (or 42 % in the case of CAP coupled aid) of average annual production.

Losses due to drought are eligible for compensation. To this end, the French authorities have ensured the implementation of Article 9 of the Framework Directive 2000/60/EC on water in the agricultural sector. To this end, they have adopted and applied Law No 2006-1772 of 30 December 2006 on water and aquatic environments to ensure the transposition of Article 9 of the above Directive in France. The provisions adopted provide for:

on the one hand, managing water use according to an analysis of what the resources and the environment can bear without suffering deterioration,

on the other, billing commensurate, by means of specific charges for agricultural activities, with the environmental costs of these activities.

Sector(s) concerned: All farms, with the exception of large undertakings, engaged in the primary production of agricultural products, that are not firms in difficulty within the meaning of the Community guidelines and that have suffered losses recognised as natural disasters

Name and address of the granting authority:

Website: http://agriculture.gouv.fr/sections/thematiques/europe-international/aides-d-etatprojets/downloadFile/FichierAttache_2_f0/regimecalam16fev10_pour_site.pdf?nocache=1266389918.43 (go to: http://agriculture.gouv.fr/sections/thematiques/europe-international)

Other information: —