Hardship cases
Article 31
1. Where a farmer, as a result of force majeure or exceptional circumstances, was prevented from making an application for allocation of payment entitlements in accordance with Article 24(1) or 39(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 and applies for payment entitlements from the national or regional reserve, he shall be allocated payment entitlements pursuant to Article 30(7)(c) of that Regulation. Member States shall establish the annual unit values of the payment entitlements to be allocated in accordance with Article 25 or 40 respectively of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 and the decisions taken by the Member State as regards the options in those Articles. 2. Member States may decide that where the application of one or several limitations of the allocation of payment entitlements laid down in Article 24(3) to (7) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 limits the number of payment entitlements allocated to a farmer to less than a fixed percentage of his eligible hectares, and where the farmer applies for payment entitlements from the national or regional reserve, that farmer shall be considered to be in a situation of ‘specific disadvantage’ under Article 30(7)(b) of that Regulation. In that case, that farmer shall be allocated a number of payment entitlements in accordance with Article 30(7)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 corresponding to a share in the total number of his eligible hectares declared in his application for 2015 in accordance with Article 72(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. The fixed percentage referred to in the first subparagraph shall be calculated as the total number of payment entitlements allocated in the Member State in 2015 after application of the limitations provided for in Article 24(3) to (7) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 divided by the total number of eligible hectares declared in the Member State in 2015 in accordance with Article 72(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. The share of the total number of eligible hectares of the farmer referred to in the first subparagraph shall be calculated as half of the difference in percentage points between the fixed percentage referred to in the first and the second subparagraphs and the share of payment entitlements of the farmer in his eligible hectares declared in 2015 in accordance with Article 72(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. When calculating the number of eligible hectares referred to in the first, second and third subparagraphs of this paragraph, Member States may decide not to include any areas taken up by permanent crops, by permanent grassland located in areas with difficult climatic conditions as referred to in Article 24(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 or by areas recognised as permanent grassland in accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 4(2) of that Regulation. Member States using the possibility provided in Article 23 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 to apply the basic payment scheme at regional level may base the calculation method referred to in the second subparagraph of this paragraph upon the total numbers allocated/declared in 2015 in the relevant region. For the purpose of determining the threshold in the first subparagraph, the land acquired or leased-in by the farmer after 19 October 2011 shall not be taken into account.