Article 30 Establishment and use of the national reserve or regional reservesF1E1

The relevant authority shall maintain the national reserve or regional reserves established prior to exit day.

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F4The relevant authority shall allocate payment entitlements from their national or regional reserves 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.

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F6The relevant authority shall use their national or regional reserves to allocate payment entitlements, as a matter of priority, to young farmers and to farmers commencing their agricultural activity.

F7The relevant authority may use their national or regional reserves to:

For the purpose of this paragraph, F13the relevant authority shall decide on the priorities between the different uses referred to herein.

When applying paragraph 6 and points F14(a) and (b) of paragraph 7, F15the relevant authority shall fix the value of payment entitlements allocated to farmers at the national or regional average value of payment entitlements in the year of allocation.

F16The national or regional average value shall be calculated by dividing the F17farm sustainability payment scheme ceiling in Northern Ireland or, where applicable, the regional ceiling in Northern Ireland for the farm sustainability payment scheme set in accordance with Article 23(2), for the year of allocation, excluding the amount of the national reserve or regional reserves, by the number of allocated payment entitlements.

F18The relevant authority shall fix the steps for annual progressive modifications of the value of payment entitlements allocated from the national reserve or regional reserves, taking account of the modifications of the F19relevant authority’s share of the basic payment ceiling or, where applicable, the regional ceiling in Northern Ireland for the farm sustainability payment scheme set in accordance with Article 23(2) that result from the variations in the level of the national ceilings set out in Annex II.

Where a farmer is entitled to receive payment entitlements or to increase the value of the existing ones by virtue of a definitive court ruling or by virtue of a definitive administrative act of the competent authority of a F20relevant authority, the farmer shall receive the number and value of payment entitlements established in that ruling or act at a date to be fixed by the relevant authority. However, that date shall not be later than the latest date for lodging an application under the farm sustainability payment scheme following the date of the court ruling or the administrative act, taking into account the application of Articles 32 and 33.

When applying paragraph 6, points (a) and (b) of paragraph 7 and paragraph 9, F21the relevant authority may either allocate new entitlements or increase the unit value of all of the existing entitlements of a farmer up to the national or regional average value.

When applying paragraph 6, points (a) and (b) of paragraph 7, and paragraph 10, the sum of the number of payment entitlements allocated to a farmer and the number of existing entitlements held by that farmer where their unit value is increased to the national or regional average value shall not exceed 90.

After the application of paragraph (10a), the number of payment entitlements to be allocated to a farmer shall be reduced by the number of entitlements temporarily transferred out by that farmer and by the number of entitlements permanently transferred out by that farmer in the scheme year of application and the previous 2 scheme years, provided those scheme years relate to 2022 or later.

For the purposes of this Article, the following definitions shall apply:

A farmer as defined in Article 4(1)(a) who has submitted an application and been unsuccessful in obtaining entitlements from the national or regional reserve under paragraph 6, 7a or 7b in three or more scheme years shall no longer be eligible to be allocated entitlements from the national or regional reserve under paragraph 6, 7a or 7b.

A young farmer as defined in Article 50(2) who has submitted an application and has been unsuccessful in obtaining entitlements from the national or regional reserve under paragraph 6, 7a or 7b in three or more scheme years shall no longer be eligible to be allocated entitlements from the national or regional reserve under paragraph 6, 7a or 7b.

A young farmer or a farmer commencing their agricultural activity is not eligible to apply for an allocation of payment entitlements in a year after 2025.