The European Commission launched a public consultation on the state aid rules applicable in the agricultural and forestry sector. The deadline for submissions in this public consultation is 20 March 2013.

The public consultation opened by the European Commission in the context of the Commission's State Aid Modernisation initiative seeks opinions on state aid rules for agriculture and forestry. The stakeholders are invited to provide their comments before the 20 March 2013. In particular, the Commission proposed to modernise state aid rules in May 2012.

According to the Commission, the results from this public consultation will feed into the review of the current legislation on state aid for agriculture and forestry. The Commission is hoping to focus its controls on state aid cases that could give rise to the most significant distortions of competition in the Internal Market and to reach faster decisions.

The Commission also stressed that the review will also enable the current regime to be aligned with the new rules that will be applicable to agriculture and rural development under the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, as the legal basis for state aid in the agricultural sector expires on 31 December 2013.