Brussels, 24/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The draft new rules on state aid in the agriculture and forestry sectors and in rural areas (block exemption regulation and guidelines) have now been put online in all official EU languages, the European Commission announced on Monday 24 February (http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/ stateaid /policy /feedback-gl/index_en.htm).
These new rules have not yet been adopted by the Commission. The drafts have been published to inform institutions, public authorities, organisations, companies and citizens, who can make comments between 24 February 24 March 2014. The revision aims to modernise state aid and bringit into line with the new common agriculture policy (CAP).
The new draft rules widen the scope of the agricultural block exemption regulation (in other words, the set of rules defining the categories of state aid that can be granted by the member states without prior notification to the Commission) to include new categories of aid. They make it for example possible to grant aid to the forestry sector receiving funding from the Rural Development Fund. The proposal also intends to widen the scope of the agricultural guidelines for state aid in the agriculture and forestry sectors (i.e. the general criteria which will be used by the Commission when assessing state aid notified by member states). Compared to the current guidelines, the draft proposes to define the criteria and conditions for granting compensation for damage caused by protected animals. The draft published on Monday will also be discussed with the member states in mid-March 2014. It will then be further developed, also on the basis of comments received by stakeholders throughout the whole process. The new rules are set to enter into force on 1 July 2014. (LC/transl.fl)