The reference amount shall be the three-year average of the total amounts of payments, which a farmer was granted under the support schemes referred to in Annex VI, calculated and adjusted according to Annex VII, in each calendar year of the reference period referred to in Article 38.

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, when a farmer commences an agricultural activity in the reference period, the average shall be based on the payments he was granted in the calendar year or years during which he exercised the agricultural activity.