Commission Regulation (EC) No 52/2002 of 11 January 2002 amending Regulation (EC) No 245/2001 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1673/2000 on the common organisation of the markets in flax and hemp grown for fibre
Date: 2002-01-11
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: common organisation of markets, flax, hemp, textile fibre

L 10/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.1.2002

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 52/2002

of 11 January 2002

amending Regulation (EC) No 245/2001 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council
Regulation (EC) No 1673/2000 on the common organisation of the markets in flax and hemp
grown for fibre

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1673/2000 of 27
July 2000 on the common organisation of the markets in flax
and hemp grown for fibre (1), and in particular Article 9
thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

The second indent of Article 3(2) of Commission Regu-
lation (EC) No 245/2001 of 5 February 2001 laying
down detailed rules for the application of Council Regu-
lation (EC) No 1673/2000 on the common organisation
of the markets in flax and hemp grown for fibre (2), as
amended by Regulation (EC) No 1093/2001 (3), provides
that primary processors must undertake to keep daily
records of stocks for the operations that they carry out.
To make stock account management less cumbersome,
primary processors should also be allowed the poss-
ibility of recording operations by lot. To that end, the
term ‘lot’ should be defined.

To prevent distortions of competition, the scope for
authorised primary processors to use more than one
cleaner of short flax fibre should be extended. However,
given the need to maintain an adequate level of control,
that scope should be limited to a maximum of two
cleaners of short
flax fibre per authorised primary
processor and marketing year.

Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 245/2001 provides
that each application for an advance is subject to the
lodging of a security, which may mean in some cases
that five different securities are lodged in the processing
period relating to the same marketing year. This system
should therefore be simplified by providing for a
the theoretical
security, calculated on the basis of
amount of aid to which each primary processor is enti-
tled,
to be lodged with the first application for an
advance and to continue to be valid for the entire
processing period in question. However, to take account
of circumstances in which the calculation of the theoret-
ical amount of aid entitlement might prove far removed

(1) OJ L 193, 29.7.2000, p. 16.
(2) OJ L 35, 6.2.2001, p. 18.
(3) OJ L 150, 6.6.2001, p. 17.

from real production estimates, provision should be
made for the Member States to establish the amount of
the security in a more flexible manner, while retaining
an equivalent level of security.

(4)

Article 17a of Regulation (EC) No 245/2001 lays down
provisions on imports of hemp. In the first indent of the
second subparagraph of paragraph 2 of that Article, the
definition of the operations that hemp seed other than
seed intended for sowing may undergo could lead to
doubts as to its interpretation. That definition should
therefore be made more specific.

(5)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
the Management
accordance with the opinion of
Committee for Flax and Hemp,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 245/2001 is amended as follows:

1. Article 3 is amended as follows:

(a) the second indent of paragraph 2 is replaced by the

following:

‘— keep daily records of stocks or records by lot, linked
regularly to financial accounts, and of the informa-
together with
tion specified in paragraph 5,
supporting documents as specified by the Member
State for the purpose of controls,’;

(b) in the third subparagraph of paragraph 4,

‘Only one
cleaner of short flax fibre’ is replaced by ‘A maximum of
two cleaners of short flax fibre’;

(c) in the first subparagraph of paragraph 5,

‘or lot’

is

inserted after ‘by day’;

(d) the following paragraph 6 is added:

‘6.
A lot shall be a determined quantity of flax or
hemp straw numbered on entry into the processing
plants or storage facilities referred to in paragraph 1.

A lot may relate to only one sale/purchase contract
covering straw, processing commitment or processing
contract as referred to in Article 5.’

12.1.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 10/11

2. Article 10(2) is replaced by the following:

‘2.
Advances shall be paid only where no irregularity has
been found to have been committed by the applicant in
respect of the marketing year concerned under the controls
provided for in Article 13 and where a security has been
lodged.

Except as regards the relevant securities where short flax
fibre is cleaned under contract, for each authorised primary
processor and each type of fibre, the security shall be 35 %
of the amount of the aid corresponding to the quantities of
fibre resulting from the multiplication referred to in the first
subparagraph of Article 8(3) of this Regulation.

However, Member States may provide that the amount of
the security be based on estimate production. In this case:

Where short flax fibre is cleaned under contract, the
relevant security shall be equal to 110 %:

— of the amount of aid corresponding to the quantities
of fibres resulting from the multiplication referred to
in the first subparagraph of Article 8(3) hereto, or

— where the Member State applies the above subpara-
graph, the total amount of advances paid for the
marketing year in question.

The security shall be released in full between the first and
the 10th day following that of granting of the aid in
proportion to the quantities on which the Member State
has granted the processing aid.’

3. The first

indent of

the second subparagraph of Article

(a) the security may not be released either in part or in full

17a(2) is replaced by the following:

before the granting of the aid;

(b) notwithstanding the fifth subparagraph,

in relation to
the total amount of advances paid the amount of the
security may not be less than:
— 110 % up to 30 April of the marketing year in

question,

— 75 % between 1 May of the marketing year in ques-

tion and 31 August following,

— 50 % between 1 September following the marketing
year in question and the date of payment of the
balance of the aid.

‘— placing in a condition that excludes use for sowing,’.

Article 2

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

It shall apply from the 2001/02 marketing year.

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

Done at Brussels, 11 January 2002.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission