1. Union aid of a total amount of EUR 330 000 000 shall be available to Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden, to provide exceptional support to farmers subject to the conditions set out in this Regulation.
2. The Member States referred to in paragraph 1 shall use the amounts referred to in Article 3 for measures aiming to compensate farmers in the most affected sectors such as the animal, fruit and vegetables, wine, cereals and oilseeds sectors, for the economic losses impacting on the viability of agricultural producers.
3. The measures shall be taken on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria that take account of the economic losses borne by the affected farmers and ensure that the resulting payments do not cause any market or competition distortion.
4. Member States shall ensure that, when farmers are not the direct beneficiaries of the payments of the Union aid, the economic benefit of the Union aid is passed on to them in full.
5. Expenditure borne by the Member States referred to in paragraph 1 in relation to the payments for the measures referred to in paragraph 2 shall only be eligible for Union aid if those payments have been made by 31 January 2024.
6. For the purposes of Article 30(3) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/127, the operative event for the exchange rate as regards the amounts set out in Article 3(1) of this Regulation shall be the date of entry into force of this Regulation.
7. Measures under this Regulation may be cumulated with other support financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.