(35)

For the purposes of these Guidelines: 1. ‘aid’ means any measure fulfilling all the criteria laid down in Article 107(1) of the Treaty; 2. ‘agricultural sector’ means all undertakings active in primary production, processing and marketing of agricultural products; 3. ‘agricultural product’ means the products listed in Annex I to the Treaty, except fishery and aquaculture products listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (28); 4. ‘aid scheme’ means any act on the basis of which, without further implementing measures being required, individual aid awards may be made to undertakings defined within the act in a general and abstract manner and any act on the basis of which aid which is not linked to a specific project may be granted to one or several undertakings for an indefinite period of time and/or for an indefinite amount; 5. ‘outermost regions’ means the regions referred to in the first paragraph of Article 349 of the Treaty; 6. ‘smaller Aegean islands’ means the smaller islands referred to in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 (29); 7. ‘rural development programme’ means a rural development programme as provided for in Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013; 8. ‘agricultural activity’ means the production, processing and marketing of agricultural products; 9. ‘forest’ means an area of land spanning more than 0,5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 %, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ; and does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use. A Member State or region may choose to apply another forest definition based on existing national legislation or inventory system. The Member States or regions must provide such definition in the notification and when it relates to a rural development measure, it should be provided in the rural development programme; 10. ‘primary agricultural production’ means the production of products of the soil and of stock farming, listed in Annex I to the Treaty, without performing any further operation changing the nature of such products; 11. ‘processing of agricultural products’ means any operation on an agricultural product resulting in a product which is also an agricultural product, except on-farm activities necessary for preparing an animal or plant product for first sale; 12. ‘marketing of agricultural products’ means holding or display with a view to sale, offering for sale, delivery or any other manner of placing on the market, except the first sale by a primary producer to resellers or processors and any activity preparing a product for such first sale; a sale by a primary producer to final consumers is considered as marketing of agricultural products if it takes place in separate premises reserved for that purpose; 13. ‘SME’ or ‘micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’ means undertakings fulfilling the criteria laid down in Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) No 702/2014 (30); 14. ‘large enterprises’ means undertakings not fulfilling the criteria laid down in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 702/2014; 15. ‘undertaking in difficulty’ means an undertaking in respect of which at least one of the following circumstances occurs: (a) in the case of limited liability company (other than SME that has been in existence for less than three years), where more than half of its subscribed share capital has disappeared as a result of accumulated losses. This is the case when deduction of accumulated losses from reserves (and all other elements generally considered as part of the own funds of the company) leads to a negative cumulative amount that exceeds half of the subscribed share capital. For the purposes of this provision ‘limited liability company’ refers in particular to the types of company mentioned in Annex I of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (31) and ‘share capital’ includes, where relevant, any share premium; (b) in the case of a company where at least some members have unlimited liability for the debt of the company (other than an SME that has been in existence for less than three years), where more than half of its capital as shown in the company accounts has disappeared as a result of accumulated losses. For the purposes of this provision, ‘a company where at least some members have unlimited liability for the debt of the company’ refers in particular to the types of company mentioned in Annex II of Directive 2013/34/EU; (c) where the undertaking is subject to collective insolvency proceedings or fulfils the criteria under its domestic law for being placed in collective insolvency proceedings at the request of its creditors; (d) where the undertaking has received rescue aid and has not yet reimbursed the loan or terminated the guarantee, or has received restructuring aid and is still subject to a restructuring plan; (e) in the case of an undertaking that is not an SME, where, for the past two years: (i) the undertaking’s book debt to equity ratio has been greater than 7,5; and (ii) the undertaking's EBITDA interest coverage ratio has been below 1,0. 16. ‘agricultural holding’ means a unit comprising of land, premises and facilities used for primary agricultural production; 17. ‘aid intensity’ means the gross aid amount expressed as a percentage of the eligible costs, before any deduction of tax or other charge; 18. ‘individual aid’ means ad hoc aid and awards of aid to individual beneficiaries on the basis of an aid scheme; 19. ‘ad hoc aid’ means aid not granted on the basis of an aid scheme; 20. ‘gross grant equivalent’ means the amount of the aid if it had been provided in the form of a grant to the beneficiary, before any deduction of tax or other charges; 21. ‘date of granting the aid’ means the date when the legal right to receive the aid is conferred on the beneficiary under the applicable national legal regime. 22. ‘producer group and organisation’ means a group or organisation set up for the purpose of: (a) adapting the production and output of producers who are members of such producer group or organisation to market requirements, or (b) jointly placing goods on the market, including the preparation for sale, centralisation of sales and supply to bulk buyers; or (c) establishing common rules on production information, with particular regard to harvesting and availability; or (d) other activities that may be carried out by producer groups or organisations, such as the development of business and marketing skills and the organisation and facilitation of innovation processes; 23. ‘repayable advance’ means a loan for a project which is paid in one or more instalments and the conditions for the reimbursement of which depend on the outcome of the project; 24. ‘plant pest’ means harmful organisms as defined in point (e) of Article 2(1) of Council Directive 2000/29/EC (32); 25. ‘start of works on the project or activity’ means the earlier of, either the start of the activities, or the construction works relating to the investment, or the first legally binding commitment to order equipment or employ services or any other commitment that makes the project or activity irreversible; buying land and preparatory works such as obtaining permits and conducting feasibility studies are not considered start of works or activity. The purchase of land referred to in point (144)(a) second sentence, (502)(a) second sentence and (635)(a) where the eligible costs for the land purchase equals 100 % of the eligible investment costs, is considered to be the start of works on project or activity; 26. ‘fiscal successor scheme’ means a scheme in the form of tax advantages which constitutes an amended version of a previously existing scheme in the form of tax advantages and which replaces it; 27. ‘fallen stock’ means animals which have been killed by euthanasia with or without a definite diagnosis or which have died, including stillborn and unborn animals, on a farm or on any premises or during transport, but which have not been slaughtered for human consumption; 28. ‘protected animal’ means any animal protected either by Union or by national legislation; 29. ‘young farmer’ means a person who is no more than 40 years of age on the date of submitting the aid application, possesses adequate occupational skills and competences and is setting up for the first time in an agricultural holding as head of that holding; 30. ‘large investment project’ means an investment in rural areas, as referred to in Chapter 3 of Part II of these Guidelines, with eligible costs exceeding EUR 50 million, calculated at prices and exchange rates on the date of granting the aid; 31. ‘adjusted aid amount’ means the maximum permissible aid amount for a large investment project, calculated according to the following formula: maximum aid amount = R × (50 + 0,50 × B + 0,34 × C), where R is the maximum aid intensity applicable in the area concerned, excluding the increased aid intensity for SMEs. B is the part of eligible costs between EUR 50 million and EUR 100 million. C is the part of eligible costs above EUR 100 million; 32. ‘tangible assets’ means assets consisting of land, buildings and plant, machinery and equipment; 33. ‘intangible assets’ means assets that do not have a physical or financial embodiment such as patents, licences, know-how or other intellectual property; 34. ‘adverse climatic event which can be assimilated to a natural disaster’ means unfavourable weather conditions such as frost, storms and hail, ice, heavy or persistent rain or severe drought which destroy more than 30 % of the average of the production calculated on the basis of the preceding three-year period or a three-year average based on the preceding five-year period, excluding the highest and the lowest entry; 35. ‘other adverse climatic event’ means unfavourable weather conditions which do not meet the conditions of point (35)34 of these Guidelines; 36. ‘environmental incident’ means a specific occurrence of pollution, contamination or degradation in the quality of the environment which is related to a specific event and is of limited geographical scope, which destroys more than 30 % of the average annual production of the undertaking active in the agricultural sector in the preceding three-year period or a three-year average based on the preceding five-year period, excluding the highest and lowest entry. It does not cover general environmental risks not connected with a specific event, such as climate change or atmospheric pollution; 37. ‘catastrophic event’ means an unforeseen event of biotic or abiotic nature caused by human action that leads to important disturbances in forest structures, eventually causing important economic damage to the forestry sectors; 38. ‘Union standard’ means mandatory standard laid down in Union legislation setting the level which individual undertakings must achieve, in particular as regards the environment, hygiene and animal welfare; consequently, standards or targets set at Union level which are binding for Member States but not for individual undertakings are not deemed to be Union standards; 39. ‘non-productive investment’ means an investment which does not lead to a significant increase in the value or profitability of the holding; 40. ‘investments to comply with an Union standard’ means investments made to comply with an Union standard after the expiry of the transitional period provided for in Union legislation; 41. ‘advice’ means complete advice given in the framework of one and the same contract; 42. ‘herd book’ means any book, register, file or data medium: (a) which is maintained by a breeders' organisation or association officially recognised by a Member State in which the breeders' organisation or association was constituted; and (b) in which pure-bred breeding animals of a given breed are entered or registered with mention of their ancestors; 43. ‘active farmer’ means an active farmer within the meaning of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013; 44. ‘less developed regions’ means regions where the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is less than 75 % of the average GDP of the EU-27; 45. ‘EU-25’ means the 25 Member States of the Union who were Member States of the Union in May 2005; 46. ‘EU-27’ means the 27 Member States of the Union who were Member States of the Union in January 2007; 47. ‘capital works’ means works, undertaken by the farmer personally or by the farmer's workers that create an asset; 48. ‘small-scale infrastructure’ means infrastructure with eligible costs limited to EUR 2 million; 49. ‘food based biofuel’ means a biofuel produced from cereal and other starch rich crops, sugars and oil crops as defined in the Commission's Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (33); 50. ‘agricultural area’ means any area taken up by arable land, permanent grassland and permanent pasture or permanent crops as defined in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013; 51. ‘other land manager’ means an undertaking which manages land other than an undertaking active in the agricultural sector; 52. ‘transaction cost’ means an additional cost linked to fulfilling a commitment, but not directly attributable to its implementation or not included in the costs or income foregone that are compensated directly; and which can be calculated on a standard cost basis; 53. for the purposes of conservation of genetic resources in agriculture and in forestry : (a) ‘in situ conservation’ in agriculture means the conservation of genetic material in ecosystems and natural habitats and the maintenance and recovery of viable population of species or feral breeds in their natural surroundings and, in the case of domesticated animal breeds or cultivated plant species, in the farmed environment where they have developed their distinctive properties; (b) ‘in situ conservation’ in forestry means the conservation of genetic material in ecosystems and natural habitats and the maintenance and recovery of viable population of species in their natural surroundings; (c) ‘on-farm or on-forest holding conservation’ means in situ conservation and development at farm or forest holding level; (d) ‘ex situ conservation’ means the conservation of genetic material for agriculture or forestry outside their natural habitat; (e) ‘ex situ collection’ means a collection of genetic material for agriculture or forestry maintained outside their natural habitat; 54. ‘foodstuffs’ means foodstuffs which are not agricultural products and which are listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (34); 55. ‘fixed costs arising from participation in quality scheme’ means the costs incurred for entering a supported quality scheme and the annual contribution for participating in that quality scheme, including, where necessary, expenditure on checks required to verify compliance with the specifications of the quality scheme; 56. ‘short supply chain’ means a supply chain involving a limited number of economic operators, committed to co-operation, local economic development, and close geographical and social relations between producers, processors and consumers; 57. ‘member of a farm household’ means a natural or legal person or a group of natural or legal persons, whatever legal status is granted to the group and its members by national law, with the exception of farm workers. Where a legal person or a group of legal persons is considered as a member of the farm household, that member must exercise an agricultural activity on the farm at the time of the aid application; 58. ‘cluster’ means a grouping of independent undertakings, including start-ups, small, medium and large enterprises as well as advisory bodies and/or research organisations designed to stimulate economic/ innovative activity by promoting intensive interactions, the sharing of facilities and the exchange of knowledge and expertise, as well as contributing effectively to knowledge transfer, networking and information dissemination among the undertakings in the cluster; 59. ‘small operator’ means a microenterprise as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361 (35), or a natural person not engaged in economic activity at the moment of applying for aid; 60. ‘local markets’ means: (a) markets in radius of 75 km from the farm of origin of the product, within which the activities of processing and sale to the final consumer have to take place; or (b) markets for which the respective rural development programme sets out a kilometric radius from the farm of origin of the product, within which the activities of processing and sale to the final consumer have to take place; or (c) markets for which the respective rural development programme sets out an convincing alternative definition; 61. ‘Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) test costs’ means all costs, including those for test kits and for the taking, transporting, testing, storing and destruction of samples, necessary sampling and laboratory testing in accordance with Chapter C of Annex X to Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (36); 62. ‘research and knowledge-dissemination organisation’ means an entity (such as universities or research institutes, technology-transfer agencies, innovation intermediaries, research-oriented physical and/or virtual collaborative entities), irrespective of its legal status (organised under public or private law) or way of financing, whose primary goal is to independently conduct fundamental research, industrial research or experimental development, as defined in the Framework for state aid for research and development and innovation or to widely disseminate the results of such activities by way of teaching, publication or knowledge transfer. Where such entity also pursues economic activities, the financing, the costs and the revenues of economic activities must be accounted for separately. Undertakings that can exert influence upon such an entity, in the quality of, for example, shareholders or members, may not enjoy preferential access to its research capacities of such an entity or to the results generated by it; 63. ‘arm's length’ means that the conditions of the transaction between the contracting parties do not differ from those which would be stipulated between independent undertakings and contain no element of collusion. Any transaction that results from an open, transparent and unconditional procedure is considered as meeting the arm's length principle; 64. ‘sustainable forest management’ means using forests and forest land in a way and at a rate that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil now and in the future relevant ecological, economic and social functions at local, national and global levels and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems; 65. ‘agro-forestry systems’ means land use systems in which trees are grown in combination with agriculture on the same land; 66. ‘fast growing trees’ means a short rotation forest, where the minimum time before felling is set to be not less than 8 years and the maximum time before felling is set not to exceed 20 years; 67. ‘trees for short rotation coppicing’ means tree species of CN code 0602 90 41 to be defined by Member States that consist of woody, perennial crops, the rootstock or stools of which remain in the ground after harvesting, with new shoots emerging in the following season and with a maximum harvest cycle to be determined by the Member States as established in Article 4(1)(k) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013; 68. ‘sparsely populated areas’ means areas accepted by the Commission as such in the individual decisions on regional aid maps for the period 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2020; 69. ‘“a” areas’ means those areas designated in an approved regional aid map for the period from 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2020 in application of the provisions of Article 107(3)(a) of the Treaty; 70. ‘“c” areas’ means those areas designated in an approved regional aid map for the period 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2020 in application of the provisions of Article 107(3)(c) of the Treaty; 71. ‘NUTS 3 area’ means a region specified at level 3 of a common classification of territorial units for statistics in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (37); 72. ‘non-predefined “c” areas’ means areas that a Member State at its own discretion designate as ‘c’ areas provided that the Member States demonstrates that such areas fulfil certain socioeconomic criteria and that those areas are designated in an approved regional aid map for the period of 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2020 in application of the provisions of Article 107(3)(c ) of the Treaty; 73. ‘former “a” areas’ means those areas designated as ‘a’ areas in an approved regional map for the period from 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2014; 74. ‘regional aid map’ means the list of areas designated by a Member State in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Guidelines on regional State aid for 2014-2020 and approved by the Commission; 75. ‘processing of agricultural products into non-agricultural products’ means any operation on an agricultural product resulting in a product which is not an agricultural product; 76. ‘evaluation plan’ means a document containing at least the following minimum elements: the objectives of the aid scheme to be evaluated; the evaluation questions; the results indicators; the envisaged methodology to conduct the evaluation; the data collection requirements; the proposed timing of the evaluation, including the date of submission of the final evaluation report; the description of the independent body conducting the evaluation or the criteria that will be used for its selection and the modalities for ensuring the publicity of the evaluation.