The aid shall be granted only in respect of areas whose production is covered by a contract between the farmer and the processing industry, except in case of processing undertaken by the farmer himself/herself on the holding.

3. In case of mergers during the reference period or not later than 31 December of the year preceding the year of application of the single payment scheme, the farmer managing the new holding shall have access to the single payment scheme under the same conditions as the farmers managing the original holdings.

Meeting of the CoR-Poland Joint Consultative Committee in Cracow on 27 June to focus on agriculture and the environment

- A system whereby Member States are authorised to modulate direct payments to farmers, within certain limits, in relation to employment on the farm, overall prosperity of the holding, or the total amount of aid paid to the holding.

The person who succeeds the transferor must: - be under 50 years of age; - possess adequate occupational skill and competence; - expand the transferor's holding by at least 5 hectares UAA or 10% of UAA, whichever is the greater, or hold in full ownership or under lease at least 5 hectares UAA which was not the subject of transfer from the transferor on or after 30th July 1992 and take over all or at least 5 hectares UAA or 10% of UAA, whichever is the greater, of the land released by the transferor; - practice farming as a main occupation and work the expanded holding for a period of 5 years or for as long as the retirement pension is ...[+++] granted to the transferor, whichever is the greater. Where a farming transferee cannot be found the transferor's holding may be disposed of to a non-farmer who can use the land for non agricultural purposes, forestry or the creation of ecological reserves or alternatively the transferor can re-assign the land to such activities.

To enable really effective restructuring, Community part-financing is granted only if the land released by the retiring farmer, whatever the form of acquisition or tenancy, is ceded to: - one or more main-activity farmers who thereby increase the size of their farms significantly, or - a person taking over from the retiring head of the farm who increases its size significantly.