# Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 of 15 December 2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production of agricultural products and amending Regulation (EC) No 70/2001, Article 18: Steps preceding grant of aid

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. In order to qualify for exemption under this Regulation, aid shall only be granted under an aid scheme in respect of activities undertaken or services received after the aid scheme has been set up and published in accordance with this Regulation.
If the aid scheme creates an automatic right to receive the aid, requiring no further action at administrative level, the aid itself shall only be granted in respect of activities undertaken or services received after the aid scheme has been set up and published in accordance with this Regulation.
If the aid scheme requires an application to be submitted to the competent authority concerned, the aid itself shall only be granted in respect of activities undertaken or services received after the following conditions have been fulfilled:
(a) the aid scheme must have been set up and published in accordance with this Regulation;
(b) an application for the aid must have been properly submitted to the competent authority concerned;
(c) the application must have been accepted by the competent authority concerned in a manner which obliges that authority to grant the aid, clearly indicating the amount of aid to be granted or how this amount will be calculated; such acceptance by the competent authority may only be made if the budget available for the aid or aid scheme not exhausted.
2. In order to qualify for exemption under this Regulation, individual aid outside any aid scheme shall only be granted in respect of activities undertaken or services received after the criteria in points (b) and (c) of the third subparagraph of paragraph 1 have been satisfied.
3. This Article shall not apply to aid covered by Article 17.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2006/1857/article/18 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2006-1857/article-18
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.