Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 of 11 March 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and amending Annex X to that Regulation

• Published date: 20 June 2014
• Official Gazette Publication: Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 181, 20 de junio de 2014,Journal officiel de l'Union européenne, L 181, 20 juin 2014,Gazzetta ufficiale dell'Unione europea, L 181, 20 giugno 2014

02014R0639 — EN — 01.01.2019 — 005.001

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►B COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) No 639/2014 of 11 March 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and amending Annex X to that Regulation (OJ L 181 20.6.2014, p. 1)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2015/1383 of 28 May 2015	L 214	1	13.8.2015
►M2	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2016/141 of 30 November 2015	L 28	2	4.2.2016
►M3	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2017/1155 of 15 February 2017	L 167	1	30.6.2017
►M4	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2018/707 of 28 February 2018	L 119	1	15.5.2018
►M5	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2018/1784 of 9 July 2018	L 293	1	20.11.2018

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▼B

COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) No 639/2014

of 11 March 2014

supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and amending Annex X to that Regulation

CHAPTER 1

SCOPE AND GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 1

Scope and general principles

Article 1

Scope

This Regulation lays down provisions supplementing certain non-essential elements of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 in relation to:

(a)general provisions on direct payments;

(b)the basic payment scheme;

(c)the single area payment scheme;

(d)the payment for farmers observing agricultural practices beneficial for the climate and the environment;

(e)the payment for young farmers commencing their agricultural activity;

(f)voluntary coupled support;

(g)the crop-specific payment for cotton;

(h)notification obligations of Member States.

Article 2

General principles

1. Member States shall implement this Regulation in accordance with objective criteria and in such a way as to ensure the equal treatment of farmers and to avoid distortions of the market and of competition, while promoting a sustainable management of natural resources and climate action.

2. Member States shall ensure that all conditions for support implemented under this Regulation are verifiable and controllable.

3. Member States shall implement this Regulation:

(a)in respect of support other than coupled support, respecting the requirements set out in paragraphs 1, 5 and 6 of Annex 2 to the Agreement on Agriculture; and

(b)in respect of coupled support, respecting the requirements of Article 6(5) of the Agreement on Agriculture.

Article 3

Reductions due to financial discipline

Reductions due to financial discipline provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 shall be applied to the sum of the payments from the different direct support schemes listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 to which each farmer is entitled to after the application of the withdrawals and administrative penalties relating to direct payments pursuant to Chapter IV of Title II of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 and before the application of administrative penalties in relation to cross-compliance pursuant to Chapter II of Title IV of that Delegated Regulation.

SECTION 2

Provisions related to definitions in Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013

Article 4

Framework for criteria on maintaining the agricultural area in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation

1. For the purposes of the point (ii) of Article 4(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, the criteria that farmers are to meet in order to fulfil the obligation to maintain the agricultural area in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation without preparatory action going beyond usual agricultural methods and machineries shall be established by Member States in either or both of the following ways:

(a)Member States require at least one annual activity to be carried out by a farmer. Where justified for environmental reasons, Member States may decide to recognise also activities that are carried out only every second year;

(b)Member States set out the characteristics to be met by an agricultural area in order to be deemed maintained in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation.

2. When establishing criteria referred to in paragraph 1, Member States may distinguish between different types of agricultural areas.

Article 5

Framework for minimum activities on agricultural areas naturally kept in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation

For the purposes of the point (iii) of Article 4(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, the minimum activity to be established by the Member States that is to be carried out on agricultural areas naturally kept in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation shall be at least one annual activity to be carried out by a farmer. Where justified for environmental reasons, Member States may decide to recognise also activities that are carried out only every second year.

Article 6

Predominance of grasses and other herbaceous forage in case of permanent grassland

For the purposes of Article 4(1)(h) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, grasses and other herbaceous forage shall be deemed to remain predominant where they cover more than 50 % of the eligible area at the level of the agricultural parcel within the meaning of Article 67(4)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.

Article 7

Established local practices in case of permanent grassland

For the purposes of Article 4(1)(h) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, established local practices shall be any or a combination of the following:

(a)practices for areas for livestock grazing which are traditional in character and are commonly applied on the areas concerned;

(b)practices which are important for the conservation of habitats listed in Annex I to Council Directive 92/43/EEC (1) and of biotopes and habitats covered by Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (2).

Article 8

Reduction coefficient according to Article 32(5) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013

When applying Article 32(5) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 for permanent grassland which can be grazed and which forms part of established local practices where grasses and other herbaceous forage are traditionally not predominant in grazing areas, Member States may distinguish between different categories of areas in order to apply different reduction coefficients to such categories.

▼M3

Article 9

Hemp

▼M4

1. For the purposes of Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, the eligibility of areas used for the production of hemp shall be subject to the use of seed of the varieties listed in the ‘Common Catalogue of Varieties of Agricultural Plant Species’ on 15 March of the year in respect of which the payment is granted and published in accordance with Article 17 of Council Directive 2002/53/EC (3). The seed shall be certified in accordance with Council Directive 2002/57/EC (4) or in accordance with Article 10 of Commission Directive 2008/62/EC (5) in the case of conservation varieties.

▼M3

2. Member States shall establish the system for determining the Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol content (hereinafter referred to as ‘THC content’) in hemp varieties, which allows them to apply the method set out in Annex III.

3. The competent authority of the Member State shall keep the records related to findings on the THC content. Such records shall comprise for each variety at least the results in terms of THC content from each sample expressed in percentage to two decimal places, the procedure used, the number of tests carried out, an indication of the point at which the sample was taken and measures taken at national level.

4. If an average of all the samples of a given variety exceeds the THC content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, Member States shall use procedure B as described in Annex III to this Regulation for the variety concerned in the course of the following claim year. That procedure shall be used in the course of the next claim years unless all the analytical results for the given variety are below the THC content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013.

5. If for the second year the average of all the samples of a given variety exceeds the THC content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, the Member State shall notify the Commission of the request for authorisation to prohibit the marketing of such variety in accordance with Article 18 of Directive 2002/53/EC. Such notification shall be sent in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 792/2009 (6) by 15 January of the following claim year at the latest. Starting from that claim year, the variety covered by that request shall not be eligible for direct payments in the Member State concerned.

6. For the purposes of this Regulation, ‘hemp cultivated as catch crop’ means crop of hemp sown after 30 June of a given year.

7. Crops of hemp shall continue to be cultivated under normal growing conditions in accordance with local practice for at least 10 days from the date of the end of flowering so that the checks necessary for the application of this Article can be made. Hemp cultivated as catch crop shall continue to be cultivated under normal...