EN Official Journal of the European Union C 91/13

Information communicated by Member States regarding State aid granted under Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production of agricultural products and amending Regulation (EC) No 70/2001

(Text with EEA relevance)

2009/C 91/05

Aid No: XA 443/08

Member State: Spain

Region: Castilla-La Mancha

Title of aid scheme: Ayudas a las inversiones destinadas a mejorar la prestación de servicios comunes en la producción primaria

Legal basis

: Convocatorias de ayudas para las cooperativas agrarias:

Orden de 08/06/2000 de la Consejería de Agricultura y Medio Ambiente por la que se establecen los programas de fomento de la calidad agroalimentaria en Castilla-La Mancha (FOCAL 2000) programa 1 cooperativismo agrario

Orden de de la Consejería de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, por la que se aprueban las bases reguladoras de las ayudas para la mejora de las estructuras asociativas agrarias en Castilla-La Mancha y se convocan dichas ayudas para el año 2009.

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Overall amount: € 500 000

Maximum aid intensity

: 30 % of eligible expenditure:

(a) cost of constructing, purchasing or improving immovable goods, except purchasing land,

(b) cost of new machinery and equipment, including computer software,

(c) general expenses related to points (a) and (b), e.g. engineering fees, consultancy fees and expenditure related to feasibility studies, patents and licences, up to 8 % of the total budget.

Date of implementation: From the date of publication of the registration number of the request for exemption on the website of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: Until 31 December 2013

Objective of aid: Investments in agricultural holdings (Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006)

Sector(s) concerned: Agriculture, livestock farming, forestry and fisheries

Name and address of the granting authority:

Consejería de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural C/ Pintor Matías Moreno, no 4 45004 Toledo ESPAÑA

Website: Provisionally at: http://www.jccm.es/agricul/paginas/ayudas/cooperativismo/cooperativismo.htm, but at www.jccm.es/cgi-bin/docm.php3 after publication.

Aid No: 444/08

Member State: Spain

Region: Castilla-La Mancha

Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving an individual award: Ayudas para la creación de secciones de cultivo

Legal basis

: Convocatorias de ayudas para las cooperativas agrarias:

Orden de 08/06/2000 de la Consejería de Agricultura y Medio Ambiente por la que se establecen los programas de fomento de la calidad agroalimentaria en Castilla-La Mancha (FOCAL 2000) programa 1 cooperativismo agrario

Orden de de la Consejería de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, por la que se aprueban las bases reguladoras de las ayudas para la mejora de las estructuras asociativas agrarias en Castilla-La Mancha y se convocan dichas ayudas para el año 2009.

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Overall amount: € 50 000

Maximum aid intensity

: 80 % of eligible expenditure:

— company formation costs,

— administrative staff costs,

— the cost of purchasing office equipment (including computer hardware and software),

— overheads, legal and administrative fees.

Date of implementation: From the date on which the registration number of the exemption request is published on the website of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Duration of scheme or individual aid award:

Objective of aid: Producer groups (Art. 9 of Reg. (EC) No 1857/2006)

Sector(s) concerned: Agriculture, livestock farming, forestry and fisheries

Name and address of the granting authority:

Consejería de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural C/ Pintor Matías Moreno, no 4 45004 Toledo ESPAÑA

Website: Provisionally: http://www.jccm.es/agricul/paginas/ayudas/cooperativismo/cooperativismo.htm, but at www.jccm.es/cgi-bin/docm.php3 after publication.

Aid No: 447/08

Member State: France

Region: Département des Bouches-du-Rhône

Title of Aid Scheme: Aides au nettoyage des serres-verre détruites par la grêle du 4 septembre 2008

Legal basis:

— Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 of 15 December 2006

— Rapport d'expertise du 3 octobre 2008

— Délibération du Conseil Général des Bouches-du-Rhône

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme: Maximum overall amount: € 131 500

Maximum aid intensity: 65 %

Date of implementation: 2008, depending on the publication date of the registration number of the exemption request on the website of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development

Duration of the aid scheme: End of 2008/end of 2009

Objective of aid: The measure complies with Article 11 (‘Aid for losses due to adverse climatic events’) of Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006.

As the ‘Fonds national de garantie des calamités agricoles’ (French agricultural disaster guarantee fund) does not cover damage by natural disasters (except floods), which is considered insurable, the General Council wishes to support glasshouse producers in Berre l'Etang whose installations have been seriously affected by hail.

The small and medium agricultural holdings affected by strong hail on 4 September 2008 will benefit, if insured, from insurance allowances for reconstructing and renovating glasshouses or parts thereof that were damaged or destroyed by hail. However, these allowances will only partly cover the reconstruction and restoration costs of structures (depending on the contracts, an obsolescence criterion and/or a lump sum is applied) and, in any case, will not cover the exceptional costs incurred in temporarily mobilising workers to clean broken glasshouses before renovation works proper. Some companies refuse to work on the restoration of glasshouses before the cleaning has been done, which requires skilled labour for the cleaning of crops.

Cleaning 117 000 m2 of glasshouses with broken roofs will require about 13 480 hours of cleaning.

For this exceptional expenditure relating to service provision, entailing considerable costs for each holding, the General Council would like to grant aid to cover in part the costs of getting workers to clean up broken glass in glasshouses.

The amount of eligible expenditure will be limited to a threshold of 3 000 hours per holding, i.e. work costing a maximum of € 45 000 per holding.

The Department will pay a maximum of 65 % of the financing needed to cover the costs of labour, i.e. a maximum of € 29 250 per agricultural holding, with the remaining 35 %, i.e. € 15 750, to be paid by the owners of the holding.

This measure fulfils the dual objective of securing installations and restoring production facilities.

We wish to point out that outside the specific framework of this exempted scheme, aid will be made available for any installations whose roofs need to be completely replaced (frame and glass panes) under aid No N 484/2007 approved by the Commission.

Sector(s) concerned: Agricultural holdings in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône whose glasshouses were destroyed by the hail: 13 individual holdings and 2 holdings set up as limited partnerships (SARL).

Name and address of the granting authority:

Monsieur le Président du Conseil Général Direction de l’Agriculture et du Tourisme Hôtel du Département 52, avenue de Saint-Just 13256 – Marseille Cedex 20 FRANCE

Website: http://www.cg13.fr/developpement/agriculture.html

Clink on ‘aides agricoles’.

At the bottom of the ‘aides agricoles’ page, under ‘projet de mesure d’aires au nettoyage des serres sinistrées par la grêle′, click on ‘téléchargez le document’’.

Aid No: XA 453/08

Member State: Estonia

Region: Eesti

Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving individual aid: Organisation and development of a farm advisory system

Legal basis: Euroopa Liidu ühise põllumajanduspoliitika rakendamise seadus (European Union Common Agricultural Policy Implementation Act), Section 54

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Planned overall expenditure of up to EEK 5,2 million (EUR 330 000)

Maximum aid intensity: up to 100 %

Date of implementation:

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: until 31 December 2009

Objective of aid: technical support for agricultural producers, provided by means of subsidised services and not involving direct payment to producers.

Aid will be granted in accordance with Article 15. The eligible costs are in accordance with Article 15(2)(a), (c) and (f) (training of farm workers, consultancy services provided by third parties, and publications such as catalogues or websites presenting information on the farm advisory system).

Sector(s) concerned: Agricultural producers (NACE code A1)

Name and address of the granting authority:

Põllumajandusministeerium Lai 39/41 Tallinn EESTI/ESTONIA

Website: http://www.agri.ee/index.php?id=26782

Other information:

— We confirm that the consultancy services offered under this aid scheme do not constitute a continuous or periodic activity or relate to an enterprise’s usual operating expenditure, such as routine tax consultancy services, regular legal services, or advertising.

— We confirm that the aid granted under this aid scheme is in accordance with Article 15(4) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006.