Judgment_paragraph 3 · Ambito territoriale di caccia Ancona 2 v Azienda Agricola Camarzano di RK (C-615/24)

3Recitals 1, 20 and 21 of Regulation No 1408/2013 are worded as follows:(1) State funding meeting the criteria in Article 107(1) of the Treaty constitutes State aid and requires notification to the [European] Commission by virtue of Article 108(3) of the Treaty. However, under Article 109 of the Treaty, the Council [of the European Union] may determine categories of aid that are exempted from this notification requirement. In accordance with Article 108(4) of the Treaty, the Commission may adopt regulations relating to those categories of State aid. By virtue of [Council] Regulation (EC) No 994/98 [of 7 May 1998 on the application of Articles [107 and 108 TFEU] to certain categories of horizontal State aid (OJ 1998 L 142, p. 1)], the Council decided, in accordance with Article 109 of the Treaty, that de minimis aid could constitute one such category. On that basis, de minimis aid, being aid granted to a single undertaking over a given period of time that does not exceed a certain fixed amount, is deemed not to meet all the criteria laid down in Article 107(1) of the Treaty and is therefore not subject to the notification procedure.…(20) … when granting a de minimis aid, Member States should inform the undertaking concerned of the amount of de minimis aid granted and of its de minimis character and should make express reference to this Regulation. Member States should be required to monitor aid granted to ensure the relevant ceilings are not exceeded and the cumulation rules are complied with. To comply with that obligation, before granting such aid, the Member State concerned should obtain from the undertaking a declaration about other de minimis aid covered by this Regulation or by other de minimis regulations received during the fiscal year concerned and the previous 2 fiscal years. Alternatively it should be possible for Member States to set up a central register with complete information on de minimis aid granted and check that any new grant of aid does not exceed the relevant ceiling.(21) Before granting any new de minimis aid each Member State should verify that neither the de minimis ceiling nor the national cap will be exceeded in that Member State by the new de minimis aid and that the other conditions of this Regulation are complied with.’