Commission Regulation (EC) No 315/2003 of 19 February 2003 amending Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine, as regards production potential
Date: 2003-02-19
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: common organisation of markets, grubbing premium, plantation, production, viticulture

20.2.2003

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COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 315/2003

of 19 February 2003

amending Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council
Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine, as regards
production potential

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 of 17
May 1999 on the common organisation of the market
in
wine (1), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2585/2001 (2),
and in particular Articles 10 and 15 thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

In order to enable Member States to continue paying aid
up to the end of a financial year,
it is necessary to
amend the rules on expenditure for the period from 1
July to 15 October, which are laid down by Commission
Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 (3), as last amended by
Regulation (EC) No 2191/2002 (4).

In particular, account should be taken of the concept of
the validation of expenditure, as defined in Article 79 of
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25
June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the
general budget of the European Communities (5).

The provisions on implementing the mechanism for
making financial allocations during the financial year
should therefore be adapted.

The fixed format for the data and information which
Member States must send to the Commission should also
be adapted.

should also be

Account
the particular
constraints connected with the rate of implementation
of the restructuring and conversion plans, and applica-
tion of the rules on areas should be adapted accordingly.

taken of

Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 should be amended
accordingly.

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

(1) OJ L 179, 14.7.1999, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 345, 29.12.2001, p. 10.
(3) OJ L 143, 16.6.2000, p. 1.
(4) OJ L 334, 11.12.2002, p. 16.
(5) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 is hereby amended as follows:

1. the first subparagraph of Article 15(2) is replaced by the

following:

‘2.
As an exception to paragraph 1, the Member States
may provide for support for a given measure to be advanced
to producers before that measure has been implemented,
provided that implementation has begun and the beneficiary
has lodged a security equal to 120 % of the support. For the
purposes of Regulation (EEC) No 2220/85, the obligation
shall be to implement the measure concerned by the end of
the second wine year following payment of the advance.’;

2. the first subparagraph of Article 15a(2) is replaced by the

following:

‘2.
As an exception to paragraph 1, the Member States
may provide for support for all the measures covered by the
support application to be advanced to producers before
those measures have been implemented, provided that
implementation has begun and the beneficiary has lodged a
security equal to 120 % of the support. For the purposes of
Regulation (EEC) No 2220/85, the obligation shall be to
implement all the measures by the end of the second wine
year following payment of the advance.’;

3. Article 16(1) is replaced by the following:

‘1.
The Member States shall forward to the Commission,
not later than 30 June of each year in respect of the restruc-
turing and conversion system:

(a) a statement of expenditure actually incurred in the
current financial year, as well as the total area involved;

(b) a statement of expenditure validated in the current

financial year, as well as the total area involved;

(c) any requests for the subsequent financing of expenditure
in the current financial year in excess of the financial
allocations made pursuant to Article 14(1) of Regulation
(EC) No 1493/1999, and the total area concerned in
each case;

(d) amended expenditure forecasts, and the total areas
concerned, for subsequent financial years until the end
of the period provided for implementing the restruc-
in accordance with the
turing and conversion plans,
allocation for each Member State.’;

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4. Article 17 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 17

1.
For each Member State, expenditure actually incurred
and declared for any given financial year shall be financed
within the limits of the amounts notified to the Commission
under Article 16(1)(a), provided that those amounts do not
exceed in total
the financial amount allocated to the
Member State pursuant to Article 14(1) of Regulation (EC)
No 1493/1999.

The Member States make the statement referred to in
2.
Article 16(1)(b) only if
the amount which they have
declared in accordance with Article 16(1)(a) is at least equal
to 75 % of the amount allocated under Article 14(1) of
Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999.

3.
Requests made by Member States in accordance with
Article 16(1)(c) shall be accepted on a pro rata basis, using
the amounts available after deducting, for all Member States,
the total of the amounts notified in accordance with Article
16(1)(a) and the amounts declared in accordance with
Article 16(1)(b)
from the total amount allocated to the
Member States pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No
1493/1999. The Commission shall notify the Member States
as soon as possible after 30 June of the extent to which the
requests may be accepted.

4.
Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 and 2, where the total
area notified in accordance with Article 16(1)(a) is less than
the number of hectares indicated in the allocation for the
financial year made to the Member State pursuant to Article
14(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999, then expenditure
declared for the financial year in question shall be financed
only up to a limit equal to the total area notified multiplied
by the average amount of aid per hectare; this figure is

calculated as a ratio between the amount allocated to the
Member State pursuant to Article 14(1) of Regulation (EC)
No 1493/1999 and the anticipated number of hectares.

This amount cannot in any event be greater than the expen-
diture declared in accordance with Article 16(1)(a).

For the purposes of implementing this paragraph, a toler-
ance of 5 % shall be applied to the total area notified as
compared with that appearing in the allocation for the
financial year.

5. Where expenditure actually incurred by a Member
State in a given financial year is less than 75 % of the
amounts referred to in paragraph 1, the expenditure to be
recognised for the following financial year, and the corre-
sponding area, shall be reduced by a third of the difference
between this threshold and the actual expenditure incurred
during the financial year in question.

6.
This reduction shall not be taken into account for the
expenditure to be recognised for the financial year following
that in which the reduction was made.

7.
Amounts repaid by producers pursuant to Articles 15
or 15a shall be deducted from the expenditure to be
financed.

8.
References to a given financial year shall refer to
payments actually made by Member States between 16
October and the following 15 October.’

Article 2

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

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

Done at Brussels, 19 February 2003.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission

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