Commission Regulation (EC) No 609/1999 of 19 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for granting aid to hop producers
Date: 1999-03-19
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: hops, producer organisation, production aid

L 75/20

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

20. 3. 1999

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 609/1999

of 19 March 1999

laying down detailed rules for granting aid to hop producers

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1696/71
of 26 July 1971 on the common organisation of the
market in hops (1), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No
1554/97 (2), and in particular Article 13(4) thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1098/98 of
25 May 1998 introducing special temporary measures for
hops (3), and in particular Article 3 thereof,

Whereas Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1350/72 of
28 June 1972 on rules for granting aid to hop produ-
cers (4), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1136/
98 (5), has been substantially amended on several occa-
sions; whereas since further amendments are to be made,
it should be recast in the interests of clarity;

Whereas Article 3 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1037/
72 of 18 May 1972 laying down general rules for granting
and financing aid for hop producers (6), as amended by
Regulation (EEC) No 1604/91 (7), provides for the intro-
duction by the Member States of a system of declarations
and registration of areas planted; whereas, with a view to
ensuring that the systems in the various Member States
are in conformity, the particulars to be shown in produ-
cers’ declarations must be specified;

for
Whereas Regulation (EC) No 1098/98 provides
compensation to be granted for the years 1998 to 2002 in
respect of areas where temporary resting and/or grub-
bing-up measures are applied; whereas such areas should
therefore be declared in the same way as areas planted;

Whereas areas planted must be declared no later than 31
May of the year of harvest; whereas this poses problems in
the United Kingdom because of developments in produc-
tion methods, whereby plants propagated from cuttings

can be harvested in the same year as planting; whereas
planting finishes in June and not in May; whereas the
harvesting of hops propagated by this method involves
only a small percentage of the total area under hops in
the United Kingdom; whereas care should nevertheless be
taken to prevent discrimination against producers
applying that method and losing the aid as a result;
whereas, to that end, provision should be made for a
derogation for the United Kingdom, involving fixing the
deadline for declaring areas at 30 June of the year of
harvest;

Whereas methods for determining areas under hops can
vary from region to region; whereas the concept of ‘area
planted' should therefore be defined at Community level
to ensure that
the areas on which production aid is
payable are calculated in the same way;

Whereas caution must increasingly be exercised in the
administration of pesticides and growers should accord-
ingly be able to spray the outer rows of hopfields towards
the inside of plantations in order to avoid affecting other
crops; whereas allowance should accordingly be made for
an extra strip of
land along each side of hopfields;
whereas hop-growing is easier if the length of the two
headlands located at the ends of the hop rows and needed
for manoeuvring agricultural machinery are set at eight
metres, since the machines used nowadays are longer and
require more manoeuvring space;

Whereas the aid should be payable on hop cones only
and not on whole young plants grown in nurseries;

Whereas aid payments should also be subject to condi-
tions ensuring that only producers who have properly
tended and harvested their hops are eligible;

(1) OJ L 175, 4. 8. 1971, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 208, 2. 8. 1997, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 157, 30. 5. 1998, p. 7.
(4) OJ L 148, 30. 6. 1972, p. 11.
(5) OJ L 157, 30. 5. 1998, p. 104.
(6) OJ L 118, 20. 5. 1972, p. 19.
(7) OJ L 149, 14. 6. 1991, p. 13.

Whereas an effective system for ensuring that the aid is
justified and no duplicate payments are made should be
introduced along the lines of the system provided for in
Council Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92 of 27 November
1992 establishing an integrated administration and

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L 75/21

control system for certain Community aid schemes (1), as
last amended by Regulation (EC) No 820/97 (2), and
Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3887/92 of 23
December 1992 laying down detailed rules for applying
the integrated administration and control system for
certain Community aid schemes (3), as last amended by
Regulation (EC) No 1678/98 (4); whereas on-the-spot
checks should be carried out on a significant sample of
applications;

Whereas the Commission must know the names and
addresses of the bodies responsible for registering areas
and the measures adopted by the Member States for the
application of the system of aid for hop producers;

Whereas in certain cases the aid may be granted directly
to recognised producer groups and associations thereof;
whereas in such cases provision should be made for the
Commission to be informed either about the way the aid
is managed or how the aid is used to achieve various aims
of recognised producer groups;

Whereas, under the new common organisation of the
market in hops, 31 December is the most appropriate
deadline for the Member States to provide information on
the management of the aid by producer groups;

Whereas it is necessary to ensure that the areas declared
are correct; whereas provisions should be adopted to
prevent and impose effective penalties on irregularities
and fraud which are graduated in accordance with the
gravity of the irregularity;

Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are
in accordance with the opinion of
the Management
Committee for Hops,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

the year of harvest, hop producers shall

By 31 May — and, in the United Kingdom, 30 June
1.
lodge
— of
declarations of areas planted and of areas subject
to
special temporary resting and/or grubbing-up measures as
provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1098/98.

2. Declarations shall include at least:

(a) the name and address of the declarant;

(b) for each variety or experimental strain:

(ii) the land-register reference of the area or the refer-
ence under
the integrated administration and
control system provided for in Regulation (EC) No
3887/92; where no such references exist for the
identification
area concerned, equivalent official
and, where necessary, further details enabling the
variety or experimental strain to be located;

(c) the name of the recognised producer group where the
the

is a member of such a group for

declarant
purposes of hop production.

3.

‘Area planted' shall mean:

(a) without prejudice to the terms of point (b), the parcel
bounded by a line joining the outer stays of the poles;
where there are hop plants on that line, an additional
strip of a width corresponding to the average width of
an alleyway within that parcel shall be added to each
side of that area; the additional strip must not form
part of a public right of way;

(b) the two headlands at the ends of the hop rows that are
needed for manoeuvring agricultural machinery,
provided that the length of neither headland exceeds
eight metres and they do not form part of a public
right of way.

Article 2

Aid applications and,

1.
in Member States which
decide to apply temporary resting measures, applications
for compensation in accordance with Article 2 of Regula-
tion (EC) No 1098/98 shall be submitted by the indi-
vidual producers or, on their behalf, by their producer
groups, within a time limit fixed by the Member State
which shall be no later than 31 October of the year of
harvest. In the event of definitive grubbing-up, applica-
tions for compensation shall be submitted not later than
31 October of the first year in which the scheme is
applied.

2.
The aid shall be granted only on registered areas
referred to in Article 1(3)(a) which, for the harvest in
question:

(a) have been planted at a uniform density of at least
1 500 plants per hectare in the case of double
stringing/wiring, or 2 000 plants per hectare in the
case of single stringing/wiring;

(i) the area planted or covered by special resting

and/or grubbing-up measures,

(b) have been declared in accordance with Article 1;

(1) OJ L 355, 5. 12. 1992, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 117, 7. 5. 1997, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 391, 31. 12. 1992, p. 36.
(4) OJ L 212, 30. 7. 1998, p. 23.

(c) have undergone normal tending and harvesting opera-
tions; young hop plants grown chiefly as nursery
products shall be excluded.

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Compensation shall be granted only on registered areas
which:

information shall be forwarded by 31
1696/71. That
December of the year following the year of the harvest in
question.

(a) have been declared in accordance with Article 1 for

the harvest in question;

(b) were in production in 1997 and have been the subject
of special resting and/or grubbing-up measures.

Article 3

Applications for aid or compensation shall include
1.
at least the information referred to in Article 1(2)
in
respect of the areas covered by the application and, in the
case of areas as referred to in Article 2(2), first paragraph, a
declaration to the effect that the crops on those areas have
been harvested.

2.
The Member States may provide that applications
for aid or compensation can comprise a duplicate of the
declaration in accordance with Article 1, with a declara-
tion added to the effect
the crops on the areas
that
covered by the application have been harvested.

Article 4

Article 6

1. Where the area determined is found to be greater
than the area declared, aid or compensation shall be
calculated on the basis of the area declared.

2. Where the area declared is found to exceed the area
determined, aid and compensation shall be calculated on
the basis of the area determined during the inspection.
However, except in cases of force majeure, the area deter-
mined shall be reduced by twice the difference from the
area declared where that difference is more than 3 % or
two hectares but is not more than 20 % of the area as
determined.

Where the difference from the area declared is more than
the area determined, no area-linked aid or
20 % of
compensation shall be granted.

The reductions shall not be made where growers can
prove that in their declaration they have made correct use
of information accepted by the competent authority.

Administrative and on-the-spot checks shall be carried
out to verify compliance with the conditions for granting
the aid and compensation.

3.
In the event of an incorrect declaration made as a
result of serious negligence, the grower in question shall
not qualify under the system of aid and compensation in
respect of the harvest in question.

The administrative checks shall also entail cross-checking
parcels declared as under hops against
the database
provided for in Article 2 of Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92.

On-the-spot checks shall be carried out after a risk
analysis and shall cover a significant sample of declara-
tions and applications amounting to at least 5 % of the
declarations of areas and 5 % of applications for aid or
compensation.

Article 5

1.
Each Member State shall notify the Commission of
the names and addresses of the bodies designated in
accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 13(1)
of Regulation (EEC) No 1696/71 and of the measures it
has taken to apply the system of aid and compensation
for hop producers.

shall

Each year

2.
send the
the Member States
Commission all relevant information in respect of recog-
nised producer groups established in their
territory,
covering the way in which those groups have managed
the aid and the compensation paid to them and, where
appropriate, details of measures
they have taken in
accordance with Article 7(1)(e) of Regulation (EEC) No

In the event of an incorrect declaration made deliberately,
the grower in question shall not qualify under the system
of aid and compensation in respect of the harvest in
question and the following harvest.

Article 7

The following provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 3887/
92 shall apply mutatis mutandis:

(a) the second subparagraph of Article 6(3), where signi-
ficant irregularities are discovered in a region or a part
of a region;

(b) the first subparagraph of Article 8(1), where declara-
tions of areas and/or applications for aid or compensa-
tion are submitted late;

(c) Article 11 as regards cases of force majeure;

(d) Article 12 as regards inspection visit reports;

(e) Article 13 as regards cases where on-the-spot checks

cannot be made;

(f) Article 14 as regards wrong payments.

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Regulation (EEC) No 1350/72 is repealed.

Article 8

References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in
the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 9

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
States.

Done at Brussels, 19 March 1999.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission