SUBSECTION 1

Support provided for in Article 20(a)(i) shall not include courses of instruction or training which form part of normal programmes or systems of agricultural and forestry education at secondary or higher levels. Support provided for in Article 20(a)(ii), shall be granted to persons who: are less than 40 years of age and are setting up for the first time on an agricultural holding as head of the holding; possess adequate occupational skills and competence; submit a business plan for the development of their farming activities. The support shall be granted up to the maximum amount laid down in the Annex Support provided for in Article 20(a)(iii), shall be granted: to farmers who decide to stop their agricultural activity for the purpose of transferring the holdings to other farmers; to farm workers who decide to stop all farm work definitively upon the transfer of the holding. The transferor shall: be not less than 55 years old but not yet of normal retirement age at the time of transfer or not more than 10 years younger than the normal retirement age in the Member State concerned at the time of the transfer; stop all commercial farming activity definitively; have practised farming for the 10 years preceding transfer. The transferee shall: succeed the transferor by setting up as provided for in Article 22; or be a farmer of less than 50 years old or a private law body and take over the agricultural holding released by the transferor to increase the size of the agricultural holding. The farm worker shall: be not less than 55 years old but not yet of normal retirement age or not more than 10 years younger than the normal retirement age in the Member State concerned; have devoted at least half of his working time to farm work, during the preceding five years, as a family helper or farm worker; have worked on the transferor’s agricultural holding for at least the equivalent of two years full-time during the four-year period preceding the early retirement of the transferor; belong to a social security scheme. The total duration of early retirement support shall not exceed 15 years for the transferor and for the farm worker. It shall not go beyond the 70th birthday of the transferor and the normal retirement age of the farm worker. Where, in the case of a transferor, a retirement pension is paid by the Member State, early retirement support shall be granted as a supplement taking into account the amount of the national retirement pension. The maximum eligible amount of support is laid down in the Annex. Support provided for in Article 20(a)(iv) shall be granted in order to help farmers and forest holders to meet costs arising from the use of advisory services for the improvement of the overall performance of their holding. As a minimum the advisory service to farmers shall cover: the statutory management requirements and the good agricultural and environmental conditions provided for in Articles 4 and 5 of and in Annexes III and IV to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003; occupational safety standards based on Community legislation. Support for the use of advisory services shall be limited to the maxima laid down in the Annex. Support provided for in Article 20(a)(v) shall be granted in order to cover costs arising from the setting up of farm management, farm relief and farm advisory services as well as forestry advisory services and shall be degressive over a maximum period of five years from setting up.

← art_20__point_d__point_ii__text_1 · All articles · Article 21 →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-08 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.