The European Commission proposed on Friday 2 March that the maximum amount of de minimis agricultural state aid that member states can distribute without prior notification should be increased from €15,000 to €25,000 per farm holding over a period of three years. A public consultation on this plan has been opened and will run until 16 April.
Technically, de minimis aid is not considered to be state aid. In times of crisis, it “enables a quicker reaction in helping farmers overcome emergencies, such as temporary liquidity gaps”, the Commission states. The maximum payable in de minimis aid was doubled, from €7,500 to €15,000, in December 2013.
To avoid any competition distortion in the single market, the Commission proposes the introduction of an additional safeguard: no single agricultural sector will be able to receive more than 50% of the total amount of national de minimis aid. The Commission also proposes a central registry which member states will have to set up and use in order to make the monitoring simpler.
The proposal is expected to be adopted by the Commission in the summer after consultations with the member states.
The link to the public consultation is: http://bit.ly/2HY3zlJ. (Original version in French)