Commission publishes results of evaluation of EU state aid rules for agriculture, forestry and rural areas

The European Commission has published a Commission Staff Working Document summarizing the results of an evaluation of the state aid rules for the agriculture and forestry sectors and for rural areas. The evaluation was carried out as part of the ongoing review of the state aid rules for agriculture, forestry and rural areas, namely the Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation, and the 2014 EU Guidelines for state aid in the agricultural and forestry sectors and in rural areas. The evaluation concludes that, overall, the rules under scrutiny work well are broadly fit for purpose. In this respect, they largely meet the needs of the sectors concerned, while also contributing to the achievement of broader EU policy objectives, such as environmental protection as well as animal and, more generally, public health. At the same time, the evaluation revealed that the existing rules need certain targeted revisions, including clarifications of some concepts, further streamlining and simplification, as well as adjustments to reflect the EU current priorities, in particular the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the European Green Deal. The Commission will take the results of the evaluation into account when reviewing the existing rules. The Commission will proceed with the impact assessment phase of the review, to look into the issues identified during the evaluation, with a view to having revised rules in place by 31 December 2022 when the current rules will expire. A full press release is available online.

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