L 193/6 Official Journal of the European Union 25.7.2007 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 875/2007 of 24 July 2007 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to de minimis aid in the fisheries sector and amending Regulation (EC) No 1860/2004 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 994/98 of 7 May 1998 on the application of Articles 92 and 93 of the Treaty establishing the European Community to certain categories of horizontal State aid (!), and in particular Article 2(1) thereof, Having published a draft of this Regulation (?), After consulting the Advisory Committee on State aid, Whereas: 4y Regulation (EC) No 994/98 empowers the Commission to set out in a regulation a ceiling below which aid measures are considered not to meet all the criteria laid down in Article 87(1) of the Treaty and therefore do not fall under the notification procedure provided for in Article 88(3) of the Treaty. On the basis of that Regulation, the Commission adopted Regulation (EC) No 69/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to de minimis aid (3), which sets a ceiling of EUR 100 000 per beneficiary over a period of three years. Originally that Regulation did not apply to the agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture and transport sectors, in view of the special rules which apply in those sectors. As regards the agriculture and fisheries sector, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1860/2004 of 6 October 2004 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to de minimis aid in the agriculture and fisheries sector (*) established a specific ceiling of EUR 3000 per beneficiary per three-year period to apply to those sectors, as in the light of the experiences acquired by the Commission, it could be affirmed that very low levels of aid granted in those sectors do not fulfil the criteria of Article 87(1) of the Treaty, provided that certain conditions are met. This is the case where both the amount of aid received by individual producers remains small, and the overall level of aid granted to these sectors does not go above a small percentage of the value of production. L 142, 14.5.1998, p. 1. C 276, 14.11.2006, p. 7. L 10, 13.1.2001, p. 30. L 325, 28.10.2004, p. 4. (4) Owing to changed economic circumstances and in the light of the experiences gained in applying the existing general de minimis rules, changes to those rules have been deemed necessary. For that reason the Commission adopted Regulation (EC) No 1998/2006 of 15 December 2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to de minimis aid (°). That regulation replaced Regulation (EC) No 69/2001, increased the general de minimis ceiling from EUR 100 000 to EUR 200 000, extended its application to the sector concerning the processing and marketing of agricultural products and introduced a new de minimis threshold of EUR 100 000 for State aid to the road transport sector. Recent experience in applying the rules on State aid to the fisheries sector, and in particular the de minimis ceiling set in Regulation (EC) No 1860/2004 and the Guidelines for the examination of State aid to fisheries and aquaculture (°) has shown that the risk of distortion of competition by de minimis aid is lower than was projected in 2004. In the light of the experience gained by the Commission, aid to undertakings in the fisheries sector not exceeding EUR 30 000 per beneficiary over any three-year period may be deemed not to affect trade between Member States and/or not to distort or threaten to distort compe- tition where the total amount of such aid granted to all undertakings in the fisheries sector over three years is below a ceiling of around 2,5 % of the annual fisheries output. It is therefore appropriate to state that such aid does not fall under Article 87(1) of the Treaty. The years to take into account for this purpose are the fiscal years as used for fiscal purposes in the Member State concerned. The relevant period of three years should be assessed on a rolling basis, so that for each new grant of de minimis aid, the total amount of such aid granted in the fiscal year concerned, as well as during the previous two fiscal years needs to be determined. Other State aid granted by a Member State should also be taken into account when granting a de minimis aid. It should not be possible for State aid measures exceeding the de minimis ceiling to be broken down into a number of smaller parts in order to bring such parts within the scope of this Regulation. () O] L 379, 28.12.2006, p. 5 (6 OJ C 229, 14.9.2004, p. 5.