Considerations on COM(2024)495 - - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2024)495 - . |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2024)495 |
| date | October 21, 2024 |
(2) In order to respond to the consequences of natural disasters occurring as from 1 January 2024, a new exceptional and temporary measure should be provided for addressing the liquidity problems that put at risk the continuity of farming and forestry activities and the continuity of small and medium businesses active in processing, marketing or development of agricultural and forestry products. Moreover, support for restoration of agricultural production potential available under Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council3 should be reinforced by providing more budgetary flexibility as regards the non-regression threshold provided for Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 of the European Parliament and of the Council4.
(3) Since the financing of the new measure will be provided through the EAFRD, the legal framework laid down for the programming period 2014-2020, in particular the specific provisions of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 and Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council5, as well as implementing provisions to those Regulations, are to apply to this new measure.
(4) The EAFRD programming period was extended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 until 31 December 2022. The implementation of the extended programming period will run until the end of 2025. Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 has also provided for transitional rules within the period of extension. Since the EAFRD is currently being implemented in the extended period, it is appropriate to provide for the conditions for the new exceptional measure and further budgetary flexibilities as regards the non-regression threshold by amending Regulation (EU) 2020/2220.
(5) In order to provide for more budgetary flexibility to reallocate funding for the new measure and the existing sub-measure for restoration of agricultural production potential, while continuing the planned investments and actions in disaster prevention and preparedness, as well as climate adaptation to mitigate the impact of the increasingly frequent climate-induced disasters, Member States should be allowed to decrease the non-regression threshold provided for in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 by maximum 15 percentage points but not below the minimum threshold of 30%.
(6) In order to enable Member States to fully address the consequences of natural disasters occurring as from 1 January 2024, it should be allowed to select for support operations that have been physically completed or fully implemented before the application for the funding under the programme is submitted to the managing authority, provided that the operation is in response to such natural disaster.
(7) The support under the measure provided for in this Regulation, which aims to secure the competitiveness of SMEs as well as farm and forest holders viability, should concentrate the available resources on beneficiaries who are affected the most by natural disasters and be granted on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria. The support should be provided only to those beneficiaries which were affected by a destruction of at least 30% of the relevant production potential.
(8) Because of the urgent, temporary and exceptional character of this measure and the need for rapid and simple disbursement of the corresponding payments, a one-off payment and an end date for application of the measure should be set.
(9) In order to give higher support to the farmers, forest holders or SMEs that 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.
(10) When granting support for the new measure, Member States should take into account the support granted under other national or Union support instruments or private schemes to respond to the impact of natural disasters.
(11) The resources for the new measure should be programmed with a co-financing rate of up to 100%.
(12) In order to ensure adequate funding of the new measure provided for in this Regulation without jeopardising other objectives of the rural development programmes, a maximum share of the Union contribution to that measure should be fixed.
(13) Support for restoring agricultural and forestry production potential in response to natural disasters should prioritise operations based on the ’build back better’ principle, this is the use of the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phases after a disaster to increase the resilience of the farming and forestry sector through integrating disaster risk reduction measures, as indicated in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, while ensuring that selected operations present the best relationship between the amount of support and the objective to ensure disaster resilience.
(14) To reduce administrative burden of affected beneficiaries and the Member States when applying “force majeure”, Member States should have the possibility to consider the whole area to be gravely affected by a natural disaster.
(15) In order to ensure a uniform implementation of the new measure through the rural development programmes within the legal framework of the programming period 2014-2020, as extended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2220, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council6.
(16) The implementing powers of the Commission should relate to the presentation of the new measure in the rural development programmes, monitoring and evaluation of the rural development policy, presentation of the annual implementation reports and implementation of checks and penalties.
(17) Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(18) In view of the devasting effects of the current natural disasters and the urgency to address and mitigate their impact on the Union agri-food and forestry sector, it is considered necessary to use the exception to the eight-week period referred to in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 to the Treaties on the role of national Parliaments in the Union.
(19) Given the urgency of the situation related to the natural disasters, it is appropriate that this Regulation enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.