TITLE IIIBASIC PAYMENT SCHEME, SINGLE AREA PAYMENT SCHEME AND RELATED PAYMENTS

CHAPTER 1Basic payment scheme and single area payment scheme

Section 2National reserve and regional reserves

Article 30Establishment and use of the national reserve or regional reserves

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The relevant authority shall maintain the national reserve or regional reserves established prior to exit day.

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F3The relevant authority shall allocate payment entitlements from their national or regional reserves in accordance with objective criteria and in such a way as to ensure the equal treatment of farmers and to avoid distortions of the market and of competition.

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Payment entitlements referred to in paragraph 4 shall only be allocated to farmers entitled to be granted direct payments in accordance with Article 9.

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F4The relevant authority shall use their national or regional reserves to allocate payment entitlements, as a matter of priority, to young farmers and to farmers commencing their agricultural activity.

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F5The relevant authority may use their national or regional reserves to:

a

allocate payment entitlements to farmers in order to prevent land from being abandoned, including in areas subject to restructuring or development programmes relating to a form of public intervention;

b

allocate payment entitlements to farmers in order to compensate them for specific disadvantages;

c

allocate payment entitlements to farmers who were prevented from being allocated payment entitlements under this Chapter as a result of force majeure or exceptional circumstances;

d

allocate, in cases where they apply Article 21(3) of this Regulation, payment entitlements to farmers whose number of eligible hectares that they declared in 2015 in accordance with point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 72(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 and that are at their disposal on a date fixed by the Member State, which shall be no later than the date fixed in that Member State for amending such an aid application, is higher than the number of owned or leased-in payment entitlements established in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and with Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 that they hold on the final date for submission of applications to be set in accordance with point (b) of the first subparagraph of Article 78 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013;

e

linearly increase, on a permanent basis, the value of all payment entitlements under the basic payment scheme at national or regional level if the relevant national or regional reserve exceeds 0,5 % of the F7relevant authority’s share of the basic payment scheme ceiling or, where applicable, the regional ceiling for the basic payment scheme, provided that sufficient amounts remain available for allocations under paragraph 6, under points (a) and (b) of this paragraph and under paragraph 9 of this Article;

f

cover the yearly needs for payments to be granted in accordance with Article 51(2) and Article 65(1), (2) and (3) of this Regulation.

For the purpose of this paragraph, F6the relevant authority shall decide on the priorities between the different uses referred to herein.

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When applying paragraph 6 and points F8(a) and (b) of paragraph 7, F9the relevant authority shall fix the value of payment entitlements allocated to farmers at the national or regional average value of payment entitlements in the year of allocation.

F10The national or regional average value shall be calculated by dividing the relevant authority’s share of the basic payment scheme ceiling or, where applicable, the regional ceiling for the basic payment scheme set in accordance with Article 23(2), for the year of allocation, excluding the amount of the national reserve or regional reserves, by the number of allocated payment entitlements.

F11The relevant authority shall fix the steps for annual progressive modifications of the value of payment entitlements allocated from the national reserve or regional reserves, taking account of the modifications of the F12relevant authority’s share of the basic payment ceiling or, where applicable, the regional ceiling for the basic payment scheme set in accordance with Article 23(2) that result from the variations in the level of the national ceilings set out in Annex II.

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Where a farmer is entitled to receive payment entitlements or to increase the value of the existing ones by virtue of a definitive court ruling or by virtue of a definitive administrative act of the competent authority of a F13relevant authority, the farmer shall receive the number and value of payment entitlements established in that ruling or act at a date to be fixed by the F13relevant authority. However, that date shall not be later than the latest date for lodging an application under the basic payment scheme following the date of the court ruling or the administrative act, taking into account the application of Articles 32 and 33.

10

When applying paragraph 6, points (a) and (b) of paragraph 7 and paragraph 9, F15the relevant authority may either allocate new entitlements or increase the unit value of all of the existing entitlements of a farmer up to the national or regional average value.

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For the purposes of this Article, the following definitions shall apply:

a

'young farmers' means farmers fulfilling the conditions laid down in Article 50(2) and, where relevant, the conditions referred to in Article 50(3) and (11);

b

'farmers commencing their agricultural activity' means natural or legal persons who, in the five years preceding the start of the agricultural activity, did not have any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk or did not have the control of a legal person exercising an agricultural activity. In the case of a legal person, the natural person or persons in control of the legal person must not have had any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk or must not have had the control of a legal person exercising an agricultural activity in the five years preceding the start of the agricultural activity by the legal person; F14this category of farmers must also meet any additional objective and non-discriminatory eligibility criteria established by the relevant authority prior to exit day as regards appropriate skills, experience or education.