L 327/86
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
21.12.2022
(28)
This Regulation should cover types of aid granted in the fishery and aquaculture sector which have been systematically approved by the Commission in the past.
This aid should not require a case-by-case assessment of its compatibility with the internal market from the Commission, provided that it complies with the conditions laid down in Regulations (EU) No 1380/2013 and (EU) 2021/1139 where applicable.
(29)
In accordance with Article 107(2), point (b), TFEU, aid to make good the damage caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences is compatible with the internal market.
In order to provide legal certainty, it is necessary to define the type of the events that may constitute a natural disaster exempted by this Regulation.
(30)
Fishery and aquaculture are sectors, which are specifically exposed to adverse climatic events which can be assimilated to a natural disaster and to animal diseases.
Experience shows that these sectors are hit extraordinarily by such events and that fishers suffer considerable damage from them.
Measures to adequately insure and compensate such damage are considered to be a suitable tool to help undertakings recover from such damage and, thus, to remain in business and in that way to ensure the development of economic activities in those sectors.
(31)
Damage caused by adverse climatic events which can be assimilated to a natural disaster, such as storms, frost, hail, ice, rainfall or severe droughts, which occur on a more regular basis, should not be considered a natural disaster within the meaning of Article 107(2), point (b), TFEU.
Nevertheless, to the extent that their impact on the economic activity is such that they can be assimilated to a natural disaster, aid to make good damage caused by adverse climatic events should be considered as compatible with the internal market pursuant to Article 107(3), point (c), TFEU.
(32)
In order to ensure that the exemption covers aid granted to make good the damage caused by natural disasters and adverse climatic events that can be assimilated to a natural disaster, this Regulation should lay down, following established practice, the conditions under which such aid may benefit from that block exemption.
Those conditions should relate, in particular, to the formal recognition by the competent Member States’ authorities of the character of the event as a natural disaster or adverse climatic event that can be assimilated to a natural disaster and to a direct causal link between the natural disaster or adverse climatic event and the damages suffered by the beneficiary undertaking, which may include undertakings in difficulty, and should ensure that overcompensation is avoided.
The compensation should not exceed what is necessary to enable the bene­ ficiary undertaking to return to the situation prevailing before the event occurred.
(33)
Fishery and aquaculture are sectors where there is insufficient incentive for individual action to occur, despite the fact that the result of individual action combined would correspond to the common good of all users.
For this reason aid to protect and restore marine biodiversity and ecosystems and compensation regimes in the framework of sustainable fishing activities, including waste collection from the sea, should be considered as compatible with the internal market pursuant to Article 107(3), point (c), TFEU.
(34)
This Regulation takes into account the specific situation of the Union outermost regions as recognised in Article 349 TFEU, which provides for specific measures.
(35)
Aid granted to SME’s participating in CLLD projects, has little impact on competition, in particular, in view of the positive role the aid plays for sharing knowledge, especially for local communities, as well as the often collective nature of the aid, and its relatively small scale.
The nature of those projects is integrated, multi-actor and multisector, which can lead to certain difficulties for their classification under State aid rules.
Municipalities, by their very nature, fall outside the scope of the SME definition (12).
They, however, often play a vital role in the organisation and realisation of CLLD projects.
Where a CLLD project is carried out in favour of one of the objectives foreseen in Article 1 of Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1588, it should therefore be possible to blockexempt also aid to municipalities in the context of such project.
Given the local nature of CLLD projects, selected on the basis of a multi-annual local development strategy determined and implemented by public-private part­ nership and their orientation to community, social, environmental and climate interest, this Regulation should address certain difficulties faced by CLLD projects in order to facilitate their compliance with State aid rules.
This should also apply to municipalities benefiting directly or indirectly from CLLD projects, which pursue one of the objectives foreseen in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 2015/1588.
(12) According to the SME definition, reproduced in Annex I of this Regulation, an enterprise cannot be considered an SME if 25 % or more of the capital or voting rights are directly or indirectly controlled, jointly or individually, by one or more public bodies (cf.
Article 3(4) of that Annex).