The revision of State Aid rules for primary producers arose in 2016 as one of the potential measures, which could be introduced, to assist producers in the face of the market difficulties they had been experiencing since 2015. In March 2016, at the Council of Agriculture Ministers, I put forward a 10 point plan, setting out proposed measures, that I believed were practical, easily implemented and responded to the pressures on farmers and processers in an appropriate and proportionate way. Among the measures proposed in the 10 point plan, was greater flexibility in the State Aid rules, both through a modest increase in the de minimis limit of €15,000 per farmer over three years, and also by including a reference to volatility management in the Agriculture Block Exemption Regulations.
I continued to call upon the Commission to consider introducing these flexibilities, and in particular, increasing the de minimis threshold limits, at a number of Council of Agriculture Ministers meetings throughout the remainder of 2016.
The Commission has considered the possibilities for such an increase and has advised that an increase in the thresholds could only be done if the increased threshold does not have a distortive effect on competition and trade. The Commission indicated that a full economic analysis of any potential distortive effects would have to be undertaken to assess the impact of any proposed increase.
