Case C-53/25, Beaudeluc: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Cour d’appel de Mons (Belgium) lodged on 28 January 2025 – AX and UI v Région wallonne
Date: 2025-01-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Belgium, State aid, Walloon region (Belgium), agricultural holding, agricultural insurance, agricultural production, aid to undertakings, control of State aid, crop losses, drought, grassland








C_202502512EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/2512


12.5.2025






Request for a preliminary ruling from the Cour d’appel de Mons (Belgium) lodged on 28 January 2025 – AX and UI v Région wallonne


(Case C-53/25, Beaudeluc)
                (1)

(C/2025/2512)
Language of the case: French

Referring court

Cour d’appel de Mons

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicants: AX, UI

Defendant: Région wallonne

Questions referred







1.


Does Article 25(9) of Commission Regulation (EU) 702/2014 of 25 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid in the agricultural and forestry sectors and in rural areas (2) compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, providing that aid to compensate SMEs active in the primary agricultural production for damage caused by an adverse climatic event which can be assimilated to a natural disaster is to be reduced by 50 % unless it is granted to beneficiaries who have taken out insurance covering at least 50 % of their average annual production or production-related income and the statistically most frequent climatic risks in the Member State or region concerned for which insurance coverage is provided, apply if the aid is intended to compensate farmers for damage caused by a climatic event considered to be a natural disaster (in this case, drought) which is not one of the statistically most frequent climatic risks in the Member State concerned (in this case, Belgium)?










2.


Does the reduction provided for in that article apply if the aid is intended to compensate farmers for damage caused by a climatic event considered to be a natural disaster (in this case, drought) which is not one of the climatic risks for which insurance cover is available in the Member State concerned (in this case, Belgium), even though there are insurance policies covering other – statistically more frequent – climatic risks (in this case, hail) which the farmer receiving the aid could have taken out?










3.


Does that article allow the Member State concerned not to reduce the aid intended to compensate farmers for damage caused by a climatic event considered to be a natural disaster, where the aid beneficiary demonstrates that the type of production in which he or she engages (in this case, permanent and temporary meadows, as well as grassland for feeding livestock, and not crops) is not insurable in the Member State concerned (in this case, Belgium) against the statistically most frequent climatic risks, up to an amount of at least 50 % of the average annual production or production-related income of his or her farm?






(1)  The name of this case is a fictitious name. It does not correspond to the real name of any party to the proceedings.

(2)  
            OJ 2014 L 193, p. 1.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/2512/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)