11.

Article 37c of the Zakon za sobstvenostta i polzvaneto na zemedelskite zemi (Law on the ownership and use of agricultural land) ( 5 ) provides: ‘1. Groupings for the use of agricultural land shall be created by an agreement between the owners and/or the users. The conclusion of the agreement shall be overseen by a commission for each locality in the territory of the municipality, set up by an order of the Director of the District Directorate “Agriculture” by 5 August of the relevant year. … 2. The agreement shall be concluded in accordance with a model established by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, … The agreement shall be concluded and updated each year by 30 August for the following financial year within the meaning of Paragraph 2(3) of the Supplementary Provisions of the Zakon za arendata v zemedelieto [(Law on Agricultural Leasing)]. It may not encompass properties declared for farming within their real boundaries and properties that are permanently used as pastures, grasslands and meadows. The agreement shall take effect provided that it covers at least two thirds of the total surface area of the land use groupings in the relevant locality. 3. Where the users cannot reach an agreement in the circumstances set out in paragraph 1, and also as regards the land not covered by the agreement, the commission shall draw up a draft allocation of land use by groupings by 15 September of the relevant year in the following manner: (1) the right to use the individual grouping shall be granted to the user with the largest share of owned and/or leased/rented agricultural land in the grouping; (2) the surface area of the agricultural land in respect of which no contracts have been concluded and no declarations have been submitted by its owners in accordance with Article 37b shall be allocated between the users in proportion to the surface area and in accordance with the manner in which the owned and/or leased/rented agricultural land in the relevant locality is permanently used. 4. The commission shall prepare a report for the Director of the District Directorate “Agriculture”, which contains the agreement concluded, the allocation of the land groupings, information on the land referred to in paragraph 3, point 2, with regard to their owners and the payment of rents due, on the basis of which the Director of the District Directorate “Agriculture” shall issue an order for the allocation of the groupings in the locality before 1 October of the relevant year. … 14. The agreement for the creation of land use groupings or the allocation of the land use groupings shall constitute a legal basis for the purposes of the Zakon za podpomagane na zemedelskite proizvoditeli [(Law on Support for Farmers)], and, in the part concerning the land referred to in paragraph 3, it shall constitute a legal basis provided that a payment for that land has been made. 15. Agricultural land included in land use groupings and approved for support under measure ‘Agri-environment payments’ of the Rural Development Programme for the period 2007-2013 and/or under measure ‘Agri-environment-climate’ and ‘Organic farming’ of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 shall be allocated without changing the locations of the persons approved under the measure where: (1) the properties made available by them pursuant to Article 37b for participation in the procedure have a surface area greater than or equal to the surface area approved for support under the measure; and (2) the owners and the users whose properties have been made available to the persons approved under the measure have declared their wish to participate in the procedure for the creation of land use groupings pursuant to that article in respect of the same properties.’