INCENTIVES FOR THE FIRST INSTALLATION

1. LUMP SUM SUBSIDY

2. LOW INTEREST LOAN

Young woman, young man

-If it is in your intentions to work professionally with agricultural activities in your own agricultural exploitation, then the instructive brochure that you have in your hands could help you in this choice of yours.

In the pages of this brochure you find the fundamental information you need for your start

up and, mainly, for the step by step movements you have to do, in order to avoid the waste of time and money.

Friends of the Agrarian Development Office, Agrarian Bank of Greece, Private individuals, this brochure is not addressed to you and it is not of the type of an Official Document.

Nevertheless, it can be of help, since the information presented therein comprises a brief codification of the applicable terms in the various measures.

• Lump sum subsidy for the first installation
• Allowance of a low interest loan for meeting of the first installation expenses.

Giorgos Anomeritis

Minister of Agriculture

1. LUMP SUM SUBSIDY FOR THE FIRST INSTALLATION WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. In order for you to be qualified as beneficiary you must:

1. be a citizen of Greece or of a country-member of the European Union or fellow - Greek from the Former Eastern Europe.
2. At the year that you present your application you must not have completed the 40^th year of your age.
3. At the date that your application is brought up for discussion before the advisory committee: -you must have completed your military service or you must have been legally exempted from it (regards males)
4. -you must have completed your studies.
5. you must not have been convicted or persecuted, you or your consort for cultivation, possession, trafficking, disposition of drugs, cattle-stealing, environment destruction, fraud against the state.
6. for the first time (one year maximum before filing of the application and the latest until the date that the Agrarian Development Office will appoint to you) you must start working professionally (disposing most of your time and drafting the biggest part of your income) in agricultural activities.
7. for the first time (one year maximum prior to filing of the application and the latest until the date that the Agrarian Development Office will appoint to you) you must undertake the economic and legal responsibility of the agricultural exploitation (headship)
8. in the year that your application is being examined, the family income outside the agriculture, must not exceed the reference income, valid in the current period (in the year 1999, the reference income is 3,9 million of drachmas).
9. Until the date that the Agrarian Development Office will appoint to you, you must:
10. -settle down permanently in a place (municipal or communal region) with no more than 50.000 inhabitants or that does not belong to Attica prefecture (except for Kithira, Antikithira, Hydra, Spetses, Troizinia)

    -obtain in every legal way, including that of a10 year leasing contract, in the place of your residence (possibility of daily access) an exploitation of minimum 0,5 Human Work Units (HWU), in case you settle down permanently in one of the Aegean Sea islands and 1 HWU in case you settle down in another place of the country.

    -get at least 150 training hours to the activity you are going to choose.

    -have as main insurance the Farmers’ Security Organization.

    -stop exercising the permanent occupation, outside the agriculture, if any

    -your agricultural income must exceed your income from sources outside the agriculture. You must present the necessary documentation that you will be asked to produce.

11. To undertake the obligation for the next 10 years:
12. -to remain resident of the place you declare as your permanent residence.

    -to maintain the size of the exploitation that the Agrarian Development Office will appoint to you.

    -to keep the legal and economic responsibility of the exploitation and to actively participate to its everyday operation.

    -to obtain at least half of your total income from the agricultural activities of your agricultural exploitation.

    -you must not have more than 110 labor wages in non agrarian activities.

    -to produce every year the copies of the E1, E3 and E9 forms as well as the cleared statements of account of the Tax office.

    -to produce every year a certification by your employer or by your second insurance organization, reflecting the number of the day labor wages you have made in the previous year.

    -to remain insured (main insurance organization) to the Farmers’ Security Organization.

    -to produce every year an attested copy of your insurance handbook.

13. -not to perform any act in your agrarian exploitation that will have anything to do with cultivation, possession, trading, disposition of drugs, cattle-stealing, fraud against the state, environment destruction.

-to accept and facilitate the inspections that are being carried out both by national and European organs.

1. Approval – financing procedure.

1. Application filing. You must file to the Agrarian Development Office of the place you intent to settle down, an application-questionnaire (you will find the form at the local Agrarian Development Office)*
2. Preliminary. Provided that following examinations of the data in the application- questionnaire, it results that you have the presuppositions, you will be given a preliminary approval and some instructions for your further acts, in order for you to receive the final approval. Among the acts that you will have to perform is to interrupt your non agrarian occupation if any, to settle down permanently at the place you have chosen and to create the exploitation that the Agrarian Development Office will appoint to you.
3. Final approval. Provided that you present, until the date that the Agrarian Development Office will appoint to you, the supporting documents that will be demanded by you, your application will be brought up for discussion (positive or negative) before an advisory committee that will be constituted for this reason, following decision of the prefect in charge. If the committee’s opinion is positive, the supervisor of the Agrarian Development Office will proceed to the issue of a decision of approval and to the execution of a contract with you, therein defining the obligations and the rights both of yourself and of the Office.
4.  
5. Financing

The subsidy will be given to you right after the signing of the contract and you can estimate by yourself its level based on the table that follow hereinbelow:

1. We hereby remind you that…

1. If you violate your commitments you will be obliged to refund interest-bearing the amounts you received.
2. If you declare incorrect or false data, besides of the penal and other sanctions, the Ministry of Agriculture will exclude you for a ten year period from any kind of aid.

* The moving cattle-breeders, independently from their place of installation, come under this category.

1. LOW INTEREST LOAN FOR THE MEETING OF THE FIRST INSTALLATION EXPENSES.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. The expenses that are considered first installation expenses.
2.  
   1. The expenses that are considered first installation expenses are:

1. those for the purchase of fixed assets of mechanical and other equipment which is necessary for the start-up and the proper operation of the exploitation.
2. Those for the installation of vivacious plantations, of promoted species and varieties (in accordance with currently valid rule of the Ministry of Agriculture).
3. Those for the purchase of animal propagation capital.
4. Those for the repair of stable installations for the good living of the animals in the exploitation.
5. Those for the repair of an old house for the improvement of the installation and living conditions of the new farmer.

1.2. In order for you to obtain the approval for the above mentioned expenses:

1. in every case, the provisions of the National and European Legislation and the sectorial restrictions, as well as the current procedure for the approval of the corresponding expenses that are provided for in an Improvement Program, must be observed.
2. The exploitations’ size and type must justify the expenses, which under no circumstances will contribute in any way to the expansion of the cultivation of non promoted species and varieties and to the cattle-breeding without having previously ensured the necessary quota, wherever is needed.

1. In order for you to be qualified as beneficiary:

1. Your access to the lump sum subsidy measurement should have already been approved or pre-approved and, further less than a year must have passed from the date of your first installation in agriculture.
2. At the year that you present your application you must not have completed the 40^th year of age.
3. To undertake the obligation for the next 10 years:

-to maintain the farmer’s capacity,i.e. to derive : the 50% of your income from agrarian activities and to dispose the 50% of your occupation time to those activities.
-to keep in your possession and exploit the activities for which you have been assisted.
-to unconditionally accept and facilitate the inspections made by both the services of the Ministry of Agriculture (Central Cervices - Agrarian Development Offices) and of the Bank:
-to pay in time your amortized instalments.

3. Mode and level of the aid:

If you are definitely qualified as a beneficiary, according to the below described procedure, and the bank grants to you the loan you are going to ask for in order for you to buy the land you want, the Greek State will cover part of the cost of the loan, subsidizing the interest rate according to the following terms:

1. Loans’ duration up to 15 years.
2. Interest rate subsidy (loans’ interest rate, the following percentages)

   	PLACE OF RESIDENCE
   	mountainous or disadvantageous area	Remaining areas
   If you are residuary of the total of an existing exploitation	80%		60%
   If you create your own exploitation from parts of other exploitations	70%		50%

3. Total aid

The interest rate subsidy that you are going to receive, is valid till the capitalized value of the following amounts is exhausted:*

Amounts in millions of drachmas.

*your classification is made in correspondance with the prerequisites you had when you entered into the measurement of the lump sum subsidy for the first installation i.e., if you have received, a lump sum subsidy of 2.7 millions of drachmas, the aid that you are entitled to from the present measurement is 2,7 millions of drachmas as basic and 2,7 as complementary. Total: 5,4 millions of drachmas.

We remind you that this sum does not reflect the amount of the loan, but that of the subsidy.

*It is noted that:

1. You can ask for the basic and the complementary aid with one or separate applications, but always within a period of time of one year (12 months) from the date of your settlement.
2. If you schedule investments with an Improvement Project or other program, your acts that are scheduled in the framework of the present program mus t have been completed and operating.
3. You cannot use the loan for operating expenses, for the purchase of a private car and generally for acts that have no direct relation to the creation of a basic infrastructure for the immediate and proper operation of your exploitation.
4. Approval procedure
5. Preparation of the beneficiary candidacy dossier

In order for you to be qualified as beneficiary you must prepare a dossier with the following supporting documents:

1. a brief feasibility study (that can be a simple technical bulletin) of performance of the investment (in two copies) which will convincingly show:
2. -the necessity of performing of the therein mentioned expenses for the proper and immediate operation of the exploitation
   -the analytic budget of the acts that you are programming.
   -the mode of financing and the Bank which you have been in contact in order for you to obtain the loan.
3. An attested copy (two sides) of you identity card or another document that specifies your age.
4. The approval or preliminary approval of your access to the measurement of the lump sum subsidy.

4.2 Where you are going to present the dossier

You will present the dossier with the above mentioned supporting documents to the Agrarian Development Office which has its seat in the area of your residence.

4.3 Dossiers’ examination – Loans’ approval

1. Agrarian Development Office
2. The Agrarian Development Office, after the examination of the dossiers’ data, will issue an act (document) in which it defines:
   -The activities that can be assisted and the terms of the aid, according to those that are in validity in corresponding activities of E.U.Regulation 950/97.
   -The level of the equivalent capital aid, that is, the level of the basic and complementary aid you are entitled to.
   -The time schedule of performing the acts.
3. Bank

Afterwards, the Agrarian Development Office forwards the dossier to the Bank of your choice.
The Bank, based on the dossiers’ data, the Agrarian Development Offices’ act and it’s own evaluation, will approve or not approve the loan.

4.4 Reporting Completion of the Acts

• As soon as you complete the scheduled acts, you must inform your Bank, producing also the invoices for the expenses you have made.

The staff of the Bank and of the Agrarian Development Office, will cheque the invoices and will acknowledge receipt of the acts you have made (record). It is self-explanatory that the level of the expenses as reflected in the invoices you have presented must raise at least up to the level of the approved expenses of the investment.

1. Consequences from the violation of terms and conditions

We hereby remind you that:

1. if you violate even one of the obligations you undertake, you will be obliged to refund the total amount of the subsidies that the Greek State has paid for your loan and in the same time, amortized installments, if any, will fall due.
2. if you declare false data in order for you to become eligible for the aid, besides of the penal and other sanctions, you will be excluded for a ten years period from any kind of aid.

1. Legal Status

(for more information)
E.U. Regulation 950/97 (L 142/97)
Law 2520/97 (The Official Gazette 173/A/97, as modified)
Joint Ministers Act 32250/2290/98 (The Official Gazette 480/B/98)
Ministers’ Act 332758/3222/98 (The Official Gazette 641/98)

7. We remind you also…

That under the capacity of the new or young farmer you can profit by the other measurements that the E.U Regulation 950/97 and Law 5220/97 provide, such as:
-to be assisted for additional investments that you will realize in your agrarian exploitation, at a level of up to 88 millions of drachmas.
-to have loan facilitation (interest rate subsidy):
-for land purchase
-for the purchase or the repair of the first owned house
-to have tax exemptions for the acquisition of agrarian land.
-to have preferential access in quota reserves, in the following sectors:
bovine milk
rights on nursing cows
selectable ewes – goats
industrial tomato
tobacco
-to reduce the cost for the issuance of the construction licenses, since:
-it subsidizes a 50-80% of the fee you are going to pay to your engineer.
-it abolishes the retention and the remaining surcharges.
-decreases to the 50% the mandatory revenue stamps you used to pay until now.