Delegated regulation 2014/807 - Supplement to Regulation 1305/2013 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and introducing transitional provisions - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 227/1

Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 lays down general rules governing Union support for rural development financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (the EAFRD), complementing the common provisions for the European Structural and Investment Funds laid down in Part Two of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2). Supplementary rules should be laid down.

Member States should establish and apply specific conditions for access to support for young farmers in case they are not setting up as a sole head of the holding. In order to ensure equal treatment of beneficiaries irrespective of the legal form under which they choose to set up in an agricultural holding, it should be provided that the conditions under which a legal person or other form of partnership may be considered to be a ‘young farmer’ should be equivalent to those of a natural person. A grace period, sufficiently long to allow young farmers to acquire the needed qualifications, should be provided for.

In order to ensure that farm and forest exchange schemes and farm and forest visits supported by the EAFRD are clearly defined and demarcated in relation to similar actions under other Union schemes, while at the same time taking into account the diversity of national situations, Member States should define the duration and content of such schemes and visits in their rural development programmes. That content should focus on certain areas, closely linked to the achievement of the Union priorities for rural development.

Rules specifying the characteristics of groups of producers and the types of actions that may receive support under the promotion component of the quality schemes measure, setting conditions to prevent distortion of competition and discrimination against certain products and excluding commercial brand names from support should be laid down.

The business plans referred to in Article 19(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 should provide sufficient elements to allow assessment of the attainment of the targets of the selected operation. In order to ensure equal treatment among beneficiaries across the Union and to facilitate monitoring, the criterion to be used for setting the thresholds referred to in Article 19(4) of that Regulation should be production potential of the agricultural holding.

Minimum environmental requirements with which the afforestation of agricultural land must comply should be laid down ensuring that no inappropriate afforestation of sensitive habitats including areas under high natural value farming takes place and that the need for resilience to climate change is taken into account. On sites designated as Natura 2000, afforestation should be consistent with the management objectives of the sites concerned. Special attention should be paid to specific environmental needs for particular sites such as the prevention of...