Considerations on COM(2022)242 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 as regards a measure to provide temporary support under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)

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dossier COM(2022)242 - Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 as regards a measure to provide temporary support under the European Agricultural ...
document COM(2022)242 EN
date May 20, 2022
 
(1) Farmers and rural businesses have been affected by the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in an unprecedented manner. Increasing input prices, notably for energy, fertiliser and animal feed, have created economic disruption to the agricultural sector and rural communities and led to liquidity problems for farmers and small rural businesses active in processing, marketing or development of agricultural products. This has created an exceptional situation which needs to be addressed.

(2) In order to respond to the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new exceptional and temporary measure should address the liquidity problems that put at risk the continuity of farming activities and of small businesses active in processing, marketing or development of agricultural products.  

(3) The support, which aims to secure the agro-business competitiveness and farm viability, should, with a view to best concentrating the available resources on beneficiaries who are suffering most from the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, be granted on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria aiming to target the support to those most affected. In the case of farmers, such criteria may include production sectors, types of farming or farm structures and, in the case of SMEs, sectors, types of activity, type of regions or other specific constraints.

(4) The current and dramatic crisis confirms the need to accelerate the transition towards sustainability to better prepare for future crises; the support for this measure should therefore not result in a reduction of the overall share of the EAFRD contribution reserved for the measures referred to in Article 59(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013.

(5) Because of the urgency, temporary and exceptional character of this measure, a one-off payment and an end date for application of the measure should be set, while the principle that payments by the Commission shall be made in accordance with budget appropriations and subject to available funding needs to be recalled.

(6) In order to give higher support where farmers or SMEs are most severely affected, it is appropriate to allow Member States to adjust the level of the lump-sums for certain categories of eligible beneficiaries for instance by fixing certain ranges or broad categories, based on objective and non-discriminatory criteria.

(7) In order to ensure adequate funding of the new measure without jeopardising other objectives of the rural development programmes, a maximum share of the Union contribution to this measure should be fixed.

(8) Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(9) In view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the urgency to address its impact on the Union agri-food sector, it is considered necessary to use the exception to the eight-week period referred to in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.

(10) Given the urgency of the situation related to the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is appropriate that this Regulation enters into force on the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.