Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3118 of 10 December 2024 amending Regulation (EU) No 1408/2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid in the agriculture sector

1 Aid measures shall be deemed not to meet all the criteria in Article 107(1) of the Treaty and shall therefore be exempt from the notification requirement in Article 108(3) of the Treaty, if they fulfil the conditions laid down in this Regulation.

2 The total amount of de minimis aid granted per Member State to a single undertaking shall not exceed EUR 50000 over any period of 3 years.

3 The cumulative amount of de minimis aid granted per Member State to undertakings active in the primary production of agricultural products over any period of 3 years shall not exceed the national cap set out in the Annex.

4 De minimis aid shall be deemed granted at the moment the legal right to receive the aid is conferred on the undertaking under the applicable national legal regime, irrespective of the date of payment of the de minimis aid to the undertaking.

5 The de minimis ceiling and the national cap referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 shall apply irrespective of the form of the de minimis aid or the objective pursued and regardless of whether the aid granted by the Member State is financed entirely or partly by resources of Union origin.

6 For the purposes of the de minimis ceiling and the national cap referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3, aid shall be expressed as a cash grant. All figures used shall be gross, that is, before any deduction of tax or other charge. Where aid is granted in a form other than a grant, the aid amount shall be the gross grant equivalent of the aid.

7 Aid payable in several instalments shall be discounted to its value at the moment it is granted. The interest rate to be used for discounting purposes shall be the discount rate applicable at the time the aid is granted.

8 Where the de minimis ceiling or the national cap referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 would be exceeded by the grant of new de minimis aid, none of that new aid may benefit from this Regulation.

9 In the case of mergers or acquisitions, all prior de minimis aid granted to any of the merging undertakings shall be taken into account in determining whether any new de minimis aid to the new or the acquiring undertaking exceeds the relevant de minimis ceiling or the relevant national cap. De minimis aid lawfully granted before the merger or acquisition shall remain lawful.

10 If one undertaking splits into two or more separate undertakings, de minimis aid granted prior to the split shall be allocated to the undertaking that benefited from it, which is in principle the undertaking taking over the activities for which the de minimis aid was used. If such an allocation is not possible, the de minimis aid shall be allocated proportionately on the basis of the book value of the equity capital of the new undertakings at the effective date of the split.’

1 Member States shall ensure that, from 1 January 2027, information on de minimis aid granted is registered in a central register at national or Union level. Information in the central register shall contain the identification of the beneficiary, the aid amount, the granting date, the granting authority, the aid instrument and the sector involved on the basis of the statistical classification of economic activities in the Union (“NACE classification”). The central register shall be set up in such a way as to enable easy public access to the information whilst ensuring compliance with the Union rules on data protection, including through the pseudonymisation of specific entries where necessary.

2 Member States shall register the information listed in paragraph 1 in the central register on de minimis aid granted by any authority within the Member State concerned within 20 working days following the grant of the aid. Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure the accuracy of the data contained in the central register.

3 Member States shall keep records of the registered information on de minimis aid for 10 years from the date on which the aid was granted.

4 A Member State shall grant new de minimis aid in accordance with this Regulation only after it has verified that the new de minimis aid will not raise the total amount of de minimis aid granted to the undertaking concerned to a level above the ceilings laid down in Article 3(2) and (3) and that all the conditions laid down in this Regulation are complied with.

5 Member States using a central register at national level shall submit to the Commission by 30 June every year aggregated data on de minimis aid granted for the previous year. The aggregated data shall contain the number of beneficiaries, the overall amount of de minimis aid granted and the overall amount of de minimis aid granted per sector (using the “NACE classification”). The first data submission shall be for de minimis aid granted from 1 January to 31 December 2027. Member States may report to the Commission on earlier periods where the aggregated data are available.

6 On written request by the Commission, the Member State concerned shall provide the Commission, within 20 working days or a longer period set out in the request, with all the information that the Commission considers necessary for assessing whether the conditions of this Regulation have been complied with, and in particular the total amount of de minimis aid within the meaning of this Regulation and of other de minimis regulations received by any undertaking.’

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.