This consultation targets public authorities who grant or deal with state aid, aid beneficiaries from the relevant sectors, and other stakeholders with hands-on experience and/or in-depth knowledge of state aid in agriculture and forestry. It aims at gathering feedback on the current framework of state aid rules, and on designing the next one for the period 2021-2027.
The results will feed into a Commission Staff Working Document on the evaluation of the current rules and into the Impact Assessment for the adoption of a new state aid framework for the period 2021-2027.
The consultation is opened for a period of 12 weeks in all official EU languages.
Background
The Commission may authorise state aid under certain conditions, notably for reasons of economic development or market failure. The Commission makes use of Guidelines and Regulations when assessing the aid in order to ensure that the assessment is transparent, consistent and coherent.
In EU state aid rules, EU countries shall notify state aid to the Commission and may not implement the aid measure until it has been authorised by the Commission. An exception to this is when the aid amounts are small enough (called de minimis aid) and won't threaten competition and trade in the internal market.
A specific framework of rules has been set up for state aid control in the agricultural and forestry sectors and in rural areas. The current framework comprises an Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation and State aid Guidelines. The validity of those instruments expires on 31 December 2020.
