Legal provisions of COM(2020)186 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 as regards specific measures to provide exceptional temporary support under EAFRD in response to the COVID-19 outbreak

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dossier COM(2020)186 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 as regards specific measures to provide exceptional temporary support under EAFRD ...
document COM(2020)186 EN
date June 24, 2020

Contents

Article 1

Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 is amended as follows:

(1)the following Article is inserted:

‘Article 39b

Exceptional temporary support to farmers and SMEs particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis

1. Support under this measure shall provide emergency assistance to farmers and SMEs particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, aiming at ensuring continuity of their business activity, subject to the conditions set out in this Article.

2. Support shall be granted to farmers, as well as to SMEs active in processing, marketing or development of agricultural products covered by Annex I to the TFEU or cotton, except fishery products. The output of the production process may be a product not covered by that Annex.

3. Member States shall target the support to beneficiaries who are most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, by determining, on the basis of available evidence, eligibility conditions and, where considered appropriate by the Member State concerned, selection criteria, which shall be objective and non-discriminatory.

4. The support shall take the form of a lump sum payment to be paid by 30 June 2021, based on applications for support approved by the competent authority by 31 December 2020. The subsequent reimbursement by the Commission shall be made in accordance with budget appropriations and subject to available funding. The level of payment may be differentiated by categories of beneficiaries, in accordance with objective and non-discriminatory criteria.

5. The maximum amount of support shall not exceed EUR 7 000 per farmer and EUR 50 000 per SME.

6. When granting support under this Article, Member States shall take into account the support granted under other national or Union support instruments or private schemes to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.’;

(2)in Article 49, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

‘2.   The Member State authority responsible for the selection of operations shall ensure that operations, with the exception of operations under point (b) of Article 18(1), point (d) of Article 24(1) and Articles 28 to 31, 33, 34 and 36 to 39b, are selected in accordance with the selection criteria referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and according to a transparent and well-documented procedure.’;

(3)in Article 59, the following paragraph is inserted:

‘6a.   The EAFRD support provided under Article 39b shall not exceed 2 % of the total EAFRD contribution to the rural development programme.’.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.