EU law on rural development support does not necessarily preclude national legislation laying down different conditions of access to start-up aid for young farmers, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Thursday 8 July (Case C-830/19).
This judgment follows a request from the General Court of Namur (Belgium) in a dispute between a young farmer established in Belgium and the Walloon Region.
Having taken over a third of his parents’ farm, this farmer’s application for start-up aid was rejected on the grounds that the farm as a whole (and not just the part owned by the young farmer) had a standard gross output (SGO) value which exceeded the ceiling provided for in the regional regulations, set at one million euros.
Following a complaint lodged by the young farmer, the Court examined the validity of the Walloon Region’s refusal in light of the European Regulation (1305/2013) on the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
In today’s judgment, the Court emphasised that EU law “does not preclude national legislation under which the criterion for determining the upper threshold enabling a young farmer who sets up as a non-exclusive head of a holding to qualify for start-up aid is the standard gross output of the entire agricultural holding, and not simply the young farmer’s share in that holding”.
Moreover, the eligibility criterion laid down by the Walloon Region’s regulation “is specifically intended to (...) prevent that aid being granted to young farmers whose holdings generate an SGO such that those farmers do not actually need support”, the CJEU ruled.
The Court added: “EU law does not require that the conditions of access to start-up aid for young farmers in two different situations be equivalent”.
See the judgment: https://bit.ly/3qXfs1O (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)