TITLE IIIRURAL DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT
CHAPTER IICommon provisions for several measures
Article 46Investments in irrigation
1
Without prejudice to Article 45 of this Regulation, in the case of irrigation in new and existing irrigated areas, only investments that fulfil the conditions in this Article shall be considered as eligible expenditure.
2
A river basin management plan, as required under the terms of the Water Framework Directive, shall have been notified to the Commission for the entire area in which the investment is to take place, as well as in any other areas whose environment may be affected by the investment. The measures taking effect under the river basin management plan in accordance with Article 11 of the Water Framework Directive and of relevance to the agricultural sector shall have been specified in the relevant programme of measures.
3
Water metering enabling measurement of water use at the level of the supported investment shall be in place or shall be put in place as part of the investment.
4
An investment in an improvement to an existing irrigation installation or element of irrigation infrastructure shall be eligible only if it is assessed ex ante as offering potential water savings of a minimum of between 5 % and 25 % according to the technical parameters of the existing installation or infrastructure.
If the investment affects bodies of ground- or surface water whose status has been identified as less than good in the relevant river basin management plan for reasons related to water quantity:
a
the investment shall ensure an effective reduction in water use, at the level of the investment, amounting to at least 50 % of the potential water saving made possible by the investment;
b
in the case of an investment on a single agricultural holding, it shall also result in a reduction to the holding's total water use amounting to at least 50 % of the potential water saving made possible at the level of the investment. The total water use of the holding shall include water sold by the holding.
None of the conditions in paragraph 4 shall apply to an investment in an existing installation which affects only energy efficiency or to an investment in the creation of a reservoir or to an investment in the use of recycled water which does not affect a body of ground or surface water.
5
An investment resulting in a net increase of the irrigated area affecting a given body of ground or surface water shall be eligible only if:
a
the status of the water body has not been identified as less than good in the relevant river basin management plan for reasons related to water quantity; and
b
an environmental analysis shows that there will be no significant negative environmental impact from the investment; such an environmental impact analysis shall be either carried out by or approved by the competent authority and may also refer to groups of holdings.
Areas which are not irrigated but in which an irrigation installation was active in the recent past, to be established and justified in the programme, may be considered as irrigated areas for the purpose of determining the net increase of the irrigated area.
6
By way of derogation from point (a) of paragraph 5 investments resulting in a net increase of the irrigated area may still be eligible if:
a
the investment is combined with an investment in an existing irrigation installation or element of irrigation infrastructure assessed ex ante as offering potential water savings of a minimum of between 5 % and 25 % according to the technical parameters of the existing installation or infrastructure and
b
the investment ensures an effective reduction in water use, at the level of the investment as a whole, amounting to at least 50 % of the potential water saving made possible by the investment in the existing irrigation installation or element of infrastructure.
Furthermore, by way of derogation, the condition in point (a) of paragraph 5 shall not apply to investments in the establishment of a new irrigation installation supplied with water from an existing reservoir approved by the competent authorities before 31 October 2013 if the following conditions are met:
the reservoir in question is identified in the relevant river basin management plan and is subject to the control requirements set out in article 11(3)(e) of the Water Framework Directive;
on 31 October 2013, there was in force either a maximum limit on total abstractions from the reservoir or a minimum required level of flow in water bodies affected by the reservoir;
that maximum limit or minimum required level of flow complies with the conditions set out in Article 4 of the Water Framework Directive; and
the investment in question does not result in abstractions beyond the maximum limit in force on 31 October 2013 or result in a reduction of the level of flow in affected water bodies below the minimum required level in force on 31 October 2013.