CELEX: 51988PC0272
Language: en
Date: 1988-05-30
Title: AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM OF TRANSITIONAL AIDS TO AGRICULTURAL INCOME

9. 7. 88                             Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 180/9
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                               COMMISSION
             Amended proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) establishing a system of transitional aids to
                                                  agricultural income (')
                                                    COM(88) 272 final
                (Submitted by the Commission pursuant to Article 149(3) of the Treaty on 30 May 1988)
                                                      (88/C 180/10)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         as a whole and should be subject to prior approval by the
                                                                 Commission of income aid programmes drawn up by the
                                                                 Member States planning to introduce such measures;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 42 and
43 thereof,
                                                                 Whereas account should also be taken of the fact that
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               holdings of the type concerned are unevenly distributed
                                                                 in the Community and are relatively concentrated in the
                                                                 Member States where budget funds and, consequently,
Having regard      to  the   opinion  of   the   European        the possibilities for granting transitional aids are much
Parliament,                                                      more restricted than in other Member States; whereas
                                                                 the cohesion sought by the Single Act therefore requires,
                                                                 in the latter cases in particular, a Community contri-
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                 bution towards the income aids granted to persons prac-
Social Committee,                                                tising farming as their main occupation; whereas the
                                                                 level of the Community contribution must be varied
Whereas the Community's policy on agricultural                   according to requirements and the financial resources
structures has been supplemented by certain measures             available in the various regions of the Community;
designed, in particular, to make it easier for farmers to
adapt to the new circumstances obtaining on agricultural
markets in the context of the current reform of the
                                                                 Whereas the Community contribution will be financed
common agricultural policy; whereas, however, these
                                                                 from appropriations entered in a special chapter of the
measures may not provide sufficient assistance for certain
                                                                 general budget of the Communities; whereas in order to
categories of family holding;
                                                                 facilitate operation of the system the financing rules
                                                                 should be those applying to the EAGGF Guarantee
Whereas, this being the case, Member States should have          Section under Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of
the option of granting transitional aids to agricultural         21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agri-
income so that the agricultural population can maintain a        cultural policy (2), as last amended by Regulation (EEQ-
fair standard of living and the balances necessary to            No 3183/87 ( J ),
the vitality of rural society can thus be safeguarded,
given the restricted opportunities for non-agricultural
employment available to the farmers concerned in the
present economic climate;                                        HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Whereas, to ensure the necessary transparency of such
temporary aids and to ensure compliance with the
                                                                                            Article 1
Community conditions laid down to prevent any jeop-
ardizing of the Community's objectives as regards                1.     To assist family holdings to overcome short-term
market reform in particular, the granting of the said aids       income difficulties and to adjust to market conditions in
to income should have to satisfy criteria relating mainly        the context of the reform of the common agricultural
to the economic situation of the holdings concerned as           policy, a Community system is hereby instituted whereby
compared with that of holdings in the region concerned
                                                                 (2) OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 15.
(') OJ No C 236, 2. 9. 1987, p. 4.                               0) OJ No L 304, 27. 10. 1987, p. 1.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 180/10                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                     9. 7. 88
the Member States may be authorized to grant tran-                (f) the detailed conditions for granting income aids
sitional aids to agricultural income, hereinafter referred            within the framework of the PAIA in question, in
to as 'income aids'.                                                  compliance with the conditions laid down in Articles
                                                                      4 and 5 and, where appropriate, Article 7.
2.     The Community shall contribute towards the
financing of income aids on the terms laid down in Title          2.    The geographical scope of the PAIA shall be
II.                                                               delimited in terms of the administrative regions of the
                                                                  Member State concerned; however, it need not fully
                                                                  coincide with one or more administrative regions if it
                           TITLE I                                covers an area where the socio-structural characteristics
                                                                  of agricultural holdings are broadly homogeneous.
                 The system of income aids
                                                                  For the purposes of the geographical delimitation,
                          Article 2                               Member States shall also take into account the initial
Income aids shall fall within the scope of this system            situation and the trends which may be inferred
where:                                                            therefrom, and in particular:
(a) they are covered by a programme drawn up by the               (a) the economic and social situation of the area in
     Member State concerned in accordance with Article                general, and in particular the prospects for non-
     3;                                                                agricultural employment;
(b) the recipients meet the conditions laid down in
                                                                  (b) the importance of farming, the characteristic types of
     Article 4 (1); and
                                                                       farming and the structure of agricultural holdings;
(c) they do not exceed in amount the level determined
     in accordance with Article 5.                                (c) the economic data relating to the profitability of
                                                                       agricultural holdings, their financial situation (capital
                                                                       and liabilities) and the average level and distribution
                          Article 3                                    of family agricultural incomes.
1.     Each programme of agricultural income aids (here-
inafter referred to as a 'PAIA') shall include at least the       3.     PAIAs may restrict the granting of income aids to
following details:                                                certain production sectors, but only by way of exception
                                                                  and in specially warranted cases.
(a) the geographical scope of the PAIA as delimited in
     accordance with paragraph 2 and, where this does
                                                                  In such cases the PAIA shall indicate, in addition to the
     not fully coincide with one or more administrative
                                                                  details listed in paragraph 1 and in the context of the
     regions within the meaning of paragraph 2, the
                                                                  information referred to in the second subparagraph of
     reasons for such delimitation;
                                                                  paragraph 2, the specific features of the production
                                                                  sector(s) concerned as compared to agricultural holdings
(b) the objectives pursued and the period within which
                                                                  as a whole within the PAIA area.
     they are to be achieved, specifying the data necessary
     for establishing the average regional income and the
     average national income within the meaning of                4.    A PAIA must not cover all or part of any regions
     Article 5;                                                   for which another PAIA has already been approved in
                                                                  accordance with Article 6.
(c) the status of the PAIA in relation to any other
     measures to stimulate economic development, and
     employment and incomes in general in the region                                         Article 4
     concerned, outlining the necessary coordination
     between those measures and those provided for in             1.     Farmers and members of their families working on
     the PAIA;                                                    the holding may qualify for income aid only where the
                                                                  overall family income on the holding amounts, per work
(d) the forecast amount of overall annual expenditure on          unit, to less than 100 % of the regional gross domestic
     the implementation of the PAIA, justifying that              product per member of the working population or, at the
     amount by reference to the socio-economic situation          option of the Member State concerned, 75 °/o of the
     of the holdings concerned and specifying, with               national gross domestic product per member of the
     supporting evidence, the amount which may qualify            working population. If the Member State uses the
     for a Community contribution under Articles 7 and            regional GDP, the limit of 75 % of the national GDP
                                                                  must not be exceeded.
     8;
(e) data warranting conformity with the objective that            'Overall family income' shall mean the income of the
     the aids granted under this Regulation must not              farmer and those members of his family who belong to
     stimulate agricultural production;                           his household, including any non-agricultural resources.
 ---pagebreak---  9. 7. 88                              Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 180/11
 The agricultural income of the holding to be taken into                                    Article 6
 account shall be established by recourse to objective
 criteria relating to the holding to be determined by the         1.     Where a Member State plans to introduce or
 procedure laid down in Article 12.                               amend a PAIA, it shall notify the Commission of the
                                                                  draft programme or the proposed amendment. The noti-
                                                                  fication must contain the information required for
 2.     Income aids may be granted to individual ben-             assessing whether the conditions laid down in this Regu-
 eficiaries for a period not exceeding five years as from         lation are met.
 the first income-aid payment.
                                                                  At the request of the Commission, the Member State
                           Article 5                              concerned shall provide additional information for
                                                                  assessment purposes.
 1.     The level of income aid per agricultural work unit
 shall be determined in such a way as to cover, at most,
 the difference between:                                          2.     Member States may not implement the planned
                                                                  measures before the Commission has approved the PAIA
 (a) the agricultural income of the holding, determined as        concerned.
      indicated in the third subparagraph of Article 4 (1),
      divided by the number of work units on the holding,
      and                                                        The Commission in making its assessment shall ensure in
                                                                  particular that the planned measures:
 (b) 100 °/o of the average regional income or, at the
      option of the Member State concerned, 80 % of the           (a) comply with the provisions of this Regulation, taking
      average national income.                                         into account the objectives thereof, and
 If determined by reference to the average regional
                                                                  (b) are consistent with the objective that aids granted
 income, the aid must not result in the agricultural
                                                                       pursuant to this Regulation must not stimulate agri-
 income of the holding per work unit exceeding 90 % of                 cultural production.
the average national income.
2.      For the purposes of paragraph 1:                          3.    Within three months from the date of receipt of a
                                                                 draft PAIA or amendments thereto, the Commission,
                                                                 having consulted the Committee provided for in Article
 (a) 'average regional income' shall mean the average
                                                                  12, shall decide whether to approve the draft PAIA or
      agricultural income per work unit recorded in the
                                                                 the amendments thereto, provided that all the particulars
      administrative region covered by the PAIA in
                                                                 listed in Article 3 and, where appropriate, the additional
      question over a multiannual reference period to be
                                                                 information referred to in the second subparagraph of
      determined in accordance with the procedure laid
                                                                 paragraph 1 of this Article have been supplied.
      down in Article 12 for the entire period of appli-
      cation of this system;
(b) 'average national income' shall mean the average                                        TITLE II
      agricultural income per work unit recorded at
      national level on the same basis as the average                        Community financing of income aids
      regional income.
                                                                                            Article 7
3.     By way of derogation from paragraph 1 and                  1.    Income aids which are part of a PAIA approved in
without prejudice to paragraph 4, a flat rate for the aid        accordance with Article 6 (3) and which are granted in
per work unit may be determined for the zone of appli-           accordance with the conditions laid down in Articles 4
cation of the PAIA by establishing the difference                and 5 shall be eligible for Community financing,
between the average regional or average national                 provided that the following special conditions are met:
income, as appropriate, specified in paragraph 2, and the
average agricultural income per work unit in the zone
derived from the most recent figures.                            (a) the farmer or another member of his family receiving
                                                                      the aid must possess adequate occupational skill and
                                                                      competence and must practise farming as his main
4.     In order to prevent distortion of competition and              occupation;
ensure that the objective stated at (e) in Article 3 (1) is
respected, maximum aid amounts set as a percentage of
the average regional or national income as defined in            (b) he must have undertaken to continue farming for at
paragraph 2 shall be determined by the procedure laid                 least five years as from the first payment of income
down in Article 12.                                                   aid.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 180/12                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                   9. 7. 88
For the purposes of compliance with the conditions laid            — 20 % where the regional synthetic indicator is equal
down in subparagraph (a), Article 2 (5) and (6) of                      to or greater than 85 % but less than 95 % of the
Council Regulation (EEC) No 797/85 (») shall apply.                     Community indicator (category III);
The party concerned may be released from the under-
taking referred to in subparagraph (b) where he meets              — 10 % where the regional synthetic indicator is equal
the requirements of the first subparagraph, second                      to or greater than 95 °/o of the Community indicator
reference, of Article 14 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No                     (category IV).
797/85.
                                                                   However, for the purpose of implementing this Article,
2.      However, only that proportion of income aid shall
                                                                   Northern Ireland shall be placed in the same category as
be eligible for Community financing:
                                                                   the neighbouring regions of Ireland.
(a) which is granted in respect of not more than two
      work units per farm and amounts to not more than
                                                                                             Article 9
      1 500 ECU per work unit per year, and
                                                                   The measures     referred to in Articles 7 and 8 shall be
(b) which constitutes, in the second, third, fourth and            financed from   appropriations entered in a special chapter
      fifth years of its grant to individual beneficiaries,        of the general  budget of the Communities. The financing
      80 °/o, 60 %, 40 % and 20 % respectively of the              rules shall be  those applying to the EAGGF Guarantee
      eligible income aid granted to such beneficiaries in         Section.
      the first year in accordance with Articles 4 and 5.
3.      To ensure that the appropriations entered in the                                     TITLE III
Community budget are not exceeded by expenditure,
additional conditions relating to the eligibility of PAIAs                              General provisions
may be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid
down in Article 12, the EAGGF Committee having been                                         Article 10
consulted on the financial aspects.
                                                                   1.     The provisions of Articles 92, 93 and 94 of the
                                                                  Treaty, with the exception of Article 92 (2), shall not
                            Article 8                              apply to aids granted pursuant to this Regulation.
1.      In order to determine the Community contribution
to the financing of eligible income aids, a Community              2.     Without prejudice to other specific or sectoral
list breaking down the regions of the Community into               Community provisions, aids to agricultural income shall
various categories shall be drawn up in accordance with            be prohibited if the conditions or rules governing the
the procedure laid down in Article 12.                             grant thereof differ from those laid down in this Regu-
                                                                   lation and, in particular, if the amount of such aids is
The list shall be drawn up on the basis of a synthetic             determined by reference to prices, quantities of agri-
indicator:                                                         cultural products or inputs.
(a) three quarters of which shall reflect the level of
      economic development as measured in terms of the                                      Article 11
      gross domestic product per inhabitant, and
                                                                   Detailed rules for the application of this Regulation shall
(b) one quarter of which shall reflect the share of total         be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down
      employment accounted for by agriculture, as                 in Article 12.
      measured by the percentage of total employment
      represented by non-agricultural employment.
                                                                                            Article 12
2.      The Community shall finance expenditure on the             1.     A Management Committee for Agricultural Income
granting of eligible income aids according to the                 Aids, hereinafter referred to as the 'Committee', shall be
category of the region where the holding concerned is             set up, comprising representatives from the Member
located, at the following rates:                                  States and chaired by a Commission representative.
— 70 °/o where the regional synthetic indicator is less
     than 75 % of the Community indicator (category I);           2.      Within the Committee the votes of the Member
                                                                  States shall be weighted in accordance with Article 148
— 45 % where the regional synthetic indicator is equal            (2) of the Treaty. The chairman shall not vote.
    to or greater than 75 °/o but less than 85 % of the
     Community indicator (category II);                           3.      Where the procedure laid down in this Article is to
                                                                  be followed, the chairman shall refer the matter to the
                                                                  Committee, either on his own initiative or at the request
(')OJ No L 93, 30. 3. 1985, p. 1.                                 of the representative of a Member State.
 ---pagebreak--- 9. 7. 88                               Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 180/13
4.    The Commission representative shall submit a draft                                    Article 13
of the measures to be adopted. The Committee shall
deliver its opinion on the measures within a time limit            1.   At the end of a three-year period starting from the
which the chairman may lay down depending on the                  entry into force of this Regulation, the Commission shall
urgency of the matters submitted for examination.                 submit to the Council and the European Parliament a
Opinions shall be delivered by a majority of 54 votes.            report on the operation of the system provided for in this
                                                                  Regulation, on the basis of the information provided by
                                                                  the Member States.
5.    The Commission shall adopt measures which shall             2.     Having examined the said report, the Council,
apply immediately. However, if they are not in                    acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in
accordance with the opinion of the Committee, the                 Article 43 (2) of the Treaty, may decide, in the light of
measures shall be immediately notified by the                     experience and changes in economic conditions, to
Commission to the Council. In this event the                      amend this system where necessary.
Commission may defer application of the measures
which it has adopted for not more than one month as                                        Article 14
from such notification.
                                                                 This Regulation shall enter into force on
                                                                  It shall apply until           [five years after entry into
The Council, acting by a qualified majority, may take a           force].
different decision within one month.
                                                                  No PAIA may be approved under           Article 6 after that
                                                                  date and no income aid provided for     in a PAIA approved
6.    The Committee may examine any other matter                 before that date may be granted           to individual ben-
referred to it by its chairman, either on his own initiative      eficiaries after       [10 years after  entry into force].
or at the request of the representative of a Member              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
State.                                                            directly applicable in all Member States.