
Article 1 
This Regulation applies to aid granted to undertakings in the agricultural production sector, with the exception of:

((a)) aid the amount of which is fixed on the basis of price or quantity of products put on the market;
((b)) aid to export-related activities, namely aid directly linked to the quantities exported, to the establishment and operation of a distribution network or to other current expenditure linked to the export activity;
((c)) aid contingent on the use of domestic over imported goods;
((d)) aid granted to undertakings in difficulty.
Article 2 
For the purpose of this Regulation:

1.. ‘undertakings in the sector of agricultural production’ means undertakings active in the primary production of agricultural products;
2.. ‘agricultural products’ means the products listed in Annex I to the Treaty, except fisheries and acquaculture products covered by Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000.
Article 3 

1. Aid measures shall be deemed not to meet all the criteria of Article 87(1) of the Treaty and shall therefore not fall under the notification requirement of Article 88(3) of the Treaty where they fulfil the conditions laid down in paragraphs 2 to 7 of this Article.
2. The total de minimis aid granted to any one undertaking shall not exceed EUR 7 500 over any period of three fiscal years. This ceiling shall apply irrespective of the form of the aid or the objective pursued. The period shall be determined by reference to the fiscal years used by the undertaking in the Member State concerned.Where the total amount of aid granted for an aid measure exceeds the ceiling referred to in the first subparagraph, none of that amount — not even the fraction not exceeding the ceiling — may benefit from this Regulation. In such cases no aid may be claimed for the measure under this Regulation, either at the time aid is granted or subsequently.
3. The cumulative amount of de minimis aid granted per Member State to undertakings in the agricultural production sector over any period of three fiscal years shall not exceed the value set out in the Annex hereto.
4. The ceilings referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 shall be expressed as a grant. All figures used shall be gross, that is, before any deduction of tax or other charges. Where aid is awarded in a form other than a grant, the aid amount to be taken into account shall be the gross grant equivalent of the aid.
5. Aid payable in several instalments shall be discounted to its value at the moment of its being granted. The interest rate to be used for discounting purposes and to calculate the gross grant equivalent shall be the reference rate applicable at the time of grant.
6. This Regulation shall apply only to aid in respect of which it is possible to calculate precisely the gross grant equivalent of the aid ex ante without need to undertake a risk assessment (transparent aid). In particular:
(a) aid in the form of loans shall be considered transparent aid where the gross grant equivalent has been calculated on the basis of market interest rates prevailing at the time of the grant.
(b) aid in the form of capital injections shall not be considered transparent aid unless the total amount of the public capital injection does not exceed the de minimis ceiling.
(c) aid in the form of risk capital measures shall not be considered transparent aid unless the risk capital scheme concerned only provides capital to each undertaking up to the de minimis ceiling.
(d) individual aid provided under a guarantee scheme to undertakings which are not undertakings in difficulty shall be treated as transparent de minimis aid when the guaranteed part of the underlying loan provided under such scheme does not exceed EUR 56 250 per undertaking. If the guaranteed part of the underlying loan only accounts for a given proportion of this ceiling, the gross grant equivalent of that guarantee shall be deemed to correspond to the same proportion of the ceiling laid down in paragraph 2. The guarantee shall not exceed 80 % of the underlying loan.Guarantee schemes are also considered as transparent aid schemes if the following conditions are met:
((i)) before they are implemented, the method used to calculate the gross grant equivalent contained in the guarantee for the purpose of applying this Regulation was approved by the Commission in the form of an adopted Commission Regulation on State aid;
((ii)) the approved method explicitly addresses the type of guarantees and the type of underlying transactions at stake in the context of applying this Regulation.
7. De minimis aid shall not be cumulated with State aid in respect of the same eligible costs if such cumulation would result in an aid intensity exceeding that laid down by Community rules in the specific circumstances of each case.
Article 4 

1. Where a Member State intends to grant de minimis aid to an undertaking, it shall inform that undertaking in writing of the prospective amount of the aid (expressed as gross grant equivalent) and of its de minimis character, making express reference to this Regulation and citing its title and publication reference in the Official Journal of the European Union. Where de minimis aid is granted to several undertakings on the basis of a scheme and different amounts of aid are granted to those undertakings, the Member State concerned may choose to fulfil this obligation by informing the undertakings of a fixed sum corresponding to the maximum aid amount to be granted under the scheme. In such case, the fixed sum shall be used for determining whether the ceiling laid down in Article 3(2) is met. Prior to granting the aid, the Member State shall also obtain a declaration from the undertaking concerned, in written or electronic form, about any other de minimis aid received during the previous two fiscal years and the current fiscal year.The Member State shall obtain a declaration from each beneficiary demonstrating that the amount of aid received by it does not exceed the ceiling laid down in Article 3(2). Where that ceiling is exceeded, the Member State concerned shall ensure that the aid measure leading to the ceiling being exceeded is notified to the Commission or recovered from the beneficiary.
2. The Member State shall only grant de minimis aid after having checked that it will not raise the total amount of de minimis aid received during the period covering the fiscal year concerned and the two previous years to a level above the ceiling laid down in Article 3(2) and (3).
3. Where a Member State has set up a central register of de minimis aid containing complete information on all de minimis aid falling within the scope of this Regulation granted by any authority within that Member State, the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 shall not apply once the register covers a period of at least three years.
4. Where an aid is granted by a Member State on the basis of a guarantee scheme providing a guarantee which is financed from the EU budget under mandate through the European Investment Fund, the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article may cease to apply.In such cases, the following monitoring system shall apply:
(a) the European Investment Fund shall establish, on a yearly basis, on the basis of information that financial intermediaries must provide to the EIF, a list of beneficiaries of aid and of the gross grant equivalent received by each of them. The European Investment Fund shall send this information to the Member State concerned and to the Commission;
(b) the Member State concerned shall send that information to the final beneficiaries of the aid within three months of receipt of such information;
(c) the Member State concerned shall obtain a declaration from each beneficiary that the overall de minimis aid it has received does not exceed the de minimis ceiling. Where that ceiling is exceeded, the Member State concerned shall ensure that the aid measure leading to the ceiling being exceeded is notified to the Commission or recovered from the beneficiary.
5. Member States shall record and compile all the information regarding the application of this Regulation. Such records shall contain all information necessary to demonstrate that the conditions of this Regulation have been complied with.The information referred to in the first subparagraph shall be kept:
(a) in the case of individual de minimis aid, for 10 years from the date on which the aid is granted;
(b) in the case of de minimis aid schemes, for 10 years from the date on which the last individual aid was granted under the scheme in question.
6. On a written request, the Member States shall provide the Commission, within a period of 20 working days, or such longer period as may be fixed in the request, with all the information that the Commission considers necessary for assessing whether the conditions of this Regulation have been met, in particular the total amount of de minimis aid granted to a given undertaking and to the agricultural sector of the Member State concerned.
Article 5 
Regulation (EC) No 1860/2004 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2008.
Article 6 

1. This Regulation shall apply to aid granted before 1 January 2008 to undertakings in the sector of agricultural production, provided that such aid fulfils all the conditions laid down in Articles 1 to 4, except for the reference requirement clearly set out in this Regulation in the first subparagraph of Article 4(1). Any aid which does not fulfil those conditions shall be assessed by the Commission in accordance with the relevant frameworks, guidelines, communications and notices.
2. Any de minimis aid granted between 1 January 2005 and six months after entry into force of this Regulation, which fulfils the conditions of Regulation (EC) No 1860/2004 applicable to the sector of agricultural production until the date of entry into force of this Regulation, shall be deemed not to meet all the criteria of Article 87(1) of the Treaty and shall therefore be exempt from the notification requirement of Article 88(3) of the Treaty.
3. At the end of the period of validity of this Regulation, de minimis aid which fulfils the conditions of this Regulation may continue to be applied under the conditions laid down in this Regulation for a further period of six months.
Article 7 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2013.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Brussels, 20 December 2007.
For the Commission
Mariann FISCHER BOEL
Member of the Commission
ANNEX

Maximum cumulative amounts of de minimis aid granted per Member State to undertakings in the agricultural production sector as referred to in Article 3(3):

(EUR)
BE 51 532 500
BG 23 115 000
CZ 26 257 500
DK 59 445 000
DE 297 840 000
EE 3 502 500
IE 40 282 500
EL 75 382 500
ES 274 672 500
FR 438 337 500
IT 320 505 000
CY 4 327 500
LV 5 550 000
LT 11 572 500
LU 1 777 500
HU 44 497 500
MT 870 000
NL 165 322 500
AT 40 350 000
PL 119 542 500
PT 47 782 500
RO 98 685 000
SL 8 167 500
SK 11 962 500
FI 26 752 500
SE 30 217 500
UK 152 842 500