Commission Regulation (EC) No 1803/2004 of 15 October 2004 amending Regulation (EC) No 94/2002 laying down detailed rules for applying Council Regulation (EC) No 2826/2000 on information and promotion actions for agricultural products on the internal market
Date: 2004-10-15
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU financing, agricultural product, consumer information, sales promotion, single market

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Official Journal of the European Union

19.10.2004

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1803/2004

of 15 October 2004

amending Regulation (EC) No 94/2002 laying down detailed rules for applying Council Regulation
(EC) No 2826/2000 on information and promotion actions for agricultural products on the internal
market

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2826/2000 of 19
December 2000 on information and promotion actions for
agricultural products on the internal market (1), and in particular
Article 12 thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Practical experience has shown that it is necessary to
improve further the implementation of the information
the internal market as
and promotion regime for
provided for
in Commission Regulation (EC) No
94/2002 (2).

Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 94/2002 provides for the
list of the competent national authorities for the appli-
cation of that Regulation. It is necessary to provide for a
more flexible way of listing the competent authority or
authorities designated by each Member State and contact
details related thereto, so as to ensure that this infor-
in a
mation can be made
continuously
available
updated list made available to all
interested parties via
the internet.

In order to evaluate and compare proposals of infor-
mation and promotion programmes
these proposals
should be submitted according to a single format in all
Member States.

In order to avoid the risk of double financing,
infor-
mation and promotion actions which are supported
under Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17
May 1999 on support for rural development from the

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund
(EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regu-
lations (3), should not be eligible for support under Regu-
lation (EC) No 2826/2000.

Practical experience has shown that
the periods for
Member States to conclude contracts with the selected
professional or interprofessional organisations are too
short,
in particular in case where several such organi-
sations in more than one Member State are involved.
Those periods need therefore to be prolonged.

The use of model contracts ensures that in all Member
States the selected programmes are carried out under the
same conditions. Where necessary, Member States should
however be permitted to vary certain terms of
the
contracts in order to take account of national rules.

It should be clarified that for multi-annual programmes
an internal report should be submitted after completion
of each annual phase, even in cases where no application
for payment is made.

experience has

shown that
four

current
Practical
times a year, of
requirements
for circulation,
quarterly reports between Member States
and the
Commission are too cumbersome. The Member States
should be obliged to circulate those reports only twice
a year.

the

The interest rate to be paid by the beneficiary of an
undue payment should be aligned with the interest rate
for amounts receivable not repaid on the due date estab-
lished in Article 86 of Commission Regulation (EC,
Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 laying
down detailed rules for implementation of Council Regu-
lation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial
the
Regulation applicable to the general budget of
European Communities (4).

(1) OJ L 328, 23.12.2000, p. 2.
(2) OJ L 17, 19.1.2002, p. 20. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

(3) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 80. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 583/2004, OJ L 91, 30.3.2004, p. 1.

lation (EC) No 185/2004 (OJ L 29, 3.2.2004, p. 4).

(4) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 1.

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(10)

Regulation (EC) No 94/2002 should be
accordingly.

amended

(11)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion delivered at
the joint
meeting of the management committees on agricultural
product promotion,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 94/2002 is amended as follows:

1.

in Article 3, the second paragraph is deleted;

2. the following Article 3a is inserted:

‘Article 3a

for

Member States shall designate the competent authority or
the application of Regulation (EC) No
authorities
2826/2000. They shall
the
names and all contact details of the designated authority
or authorities, as well as of any changes to this information.
The Commission shall make this
information publicly
available in an appropriate form.’;

inform the Commission of

shall be informed by the Member States whether or not their
applications have been accepted. The Member States shall
conclude contracts with the selected organisations within
the Commission
60 calendar days of notification of
jointly presented by
decision.
several professional or
in
more than one Member State, contracts shall be concluded
within 90 calendar days. Beyond that deadline, no contracts
may be concluded without prior authorisation from the
Commission.

interprofessional organisations

In case of programmes

2.
The Member States shall use model contracts supplied
by the Commission. Where necessary, Member States may
the model contracts to take into
vary certain terms of
account national
that
to the
rules but only
Community law is not prejudiced.’;

extent

6. Article 12 is amended as follows:

(a) in paragraph 2, the following paragraph 2a is inserted:

3.

in Article 5(1) the following subparagraph is added:

‘The programmes shall be submitted in a form drawn up by
the Commission and supplied to the Member States.’;

‘2a.
For multi-annual programmes, the internal report
referred to in paragraph 2(c) shall be submitted after
completion of each annual phase, even in case where
no application for payment of the balance is introduced.’;

4.

in Article 9, the following paragraph 3 is added:

(b) Paragraph 7 is replaced by the following:

‘3.
Information and promotion activities which are
supported under Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 (*)
shall not qualify for support under Regulation (EC) No
2826/2000.

___________
(*) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 80.’;

5.

in Article 10, paragraphs 1 and 2 are replaced by the
following:

As soon as the final

‘1.
list, referred to in the third
subparagraph of Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No
2826/2000, of programmes selected by the Member States
has been drawn up, the individual organisations concerned

‘7. Within 60 calendar days of receipt, the Member
States shall send to the Commission the summaries
referred to in paragraph 2(a) and (b) and the internal
evaluation report referred to in paragraph 2(c).

required for

interim reports

They shall send to the Commission twice a year the
quarterly
intermediate
payments in accordance with paragraph 1: the first and
second quarterly reports shall be sent within 60 calendar
days of receipt of the second quarterly report and the
third and fourth quarterly reports together with the
summaries and report referred to in the first subpar-
agraph of this paragraph.’;

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7.

in Article 14(1), the second subparagraph is replaced by the
following:

8. Annex II is deleted.

Article 2

‘The interest rate to be used shall be that applied by the
European Central Bank to its principal financial operations
in euro, as published in the C series of the Official Journal of
the European Union, in force on the first calendar day of the
month in which the due date falls, increased by three and a
half percentage points.’;

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following
the European
that of
Union.

its publication in the Official

Journal of

However, point 3 of Article 1 shall apply to proposals for
programmes submitted to the Commission as from 1 January
2005.

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

Done at Brussels, 15 October 2004.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER
Member of the Commission