Commission Regulation (EC) No 1761/2003 of 7 October 2003 derogating from Regulation (EC) No 2461/1999 for the 2003/04 marketing year as regards the use of land set aside in certain Member States
Date: 2003-10-07
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: animal feedingstuffs, derogation from EU law, drought, fallow, harvest, land use

8.10.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 254/3

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1761/2003

of 7 October 2003

derogating from Regulation (EC) No 2461/1999 for the 2003/04 marketing year as regards the use
of land set aside in certain Member States

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1251/1999 of 17
May 1999 establishing a support system for producers of
certain arable crops (1), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No
1038/2001 (2), and in particular Article 9 thereof,

material grown on land declared as set aside under Regu-
lation (EC) No 2461/1999. Since
that derogation
complements the derogation provided for in Regulation
(EC) No 1408/2003, it should apply from the same date.

(4)

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

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

The second subparagraph of Article 7 of Commission
Regulation (EC) No 2461/1999 (3), as last amended by
Regulation (EC) No 345/2002 (4), provides that where
the land covered by contracts is reduced as a result of
their amendments or where contracts are terminated, in
order to maintain their rights to payments, applicants
are required to set aside the land in question once more
and abstain from selling, transferring or using raw mate-
rials grown on the land struck out of the contracts.
Under the sixth subparagraph of Article 3(4) of that
Regulation, that provision applies mutatis mutandis where
the contract is replaced by a declaration.

As a result of the extreme drought that has affected
certain regions of the Community for some months, the
Commission adopted Regulations (EC) No 1360/2003 (5)
and (EC) No 1408/2003 (6) authorising farmers, excep-
tionally, to use land declared as set aside in the regions
affected for animal feed during the 2003/04 marketing
year.

In view of the continuing difficulties in obtaining animal
feed in the regions affected by the drought, a derogation
should also be provided for to allow the use of the raw

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

(b) of

By way of derogation from point

1.
the second
subparagraph of Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 2461/1999,
applicants in a region recognised as affected by drought under
Regulations (EC) No 1360/2003 and (EC) No 1408/2003, who
have been authorised by the competent authority to amend or
terminate their contract or the declaration referred to in Article
3(4) of Regulation (EC) No 2461/1999 may use the raw mate-
rial harvested on the land concerned for animal feed during the
2003/04 marketing year.

2.
The Member States concerned shall take all necessary
measures to ensure that the raw materials referred to in para-
graph 1 are not used for lucrative purposes.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publica-
tion in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 18 July 2003.

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

Done at Brussels, 7 October 2003.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 16.
(3) OJ L 299, 20.11.1999, p. 16.
(4) OJ L 55, 26.2.2002, p. 10.
(5) OJ L 194, 1.8.2003, p. 35.
(6) OJ L 201, 8.8.2003, p. 5.