Commission Regulation (EC) No 1806/2004 of 18 October 2004 amending Regulation (EC) No 2879/2000 laying down detailed rules for applying Council Regulation (EC) No 2702/1999 on measures to provide information on, and to promote, agricultural products in third countries
Date: 2004-10-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU financing, agricultural product, consumer information, sales promotion, third country

19.10.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 318/11

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1806/2004

of 18 October 2004

amending Regulation (EC) No 2879/2000 laying down detailed rules for applying Council Regu-
lation (EC) No 2702/1999 on measures to provide information on, and to promote, agricultural
products in third countries

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2702/1999 of 14
December 1999 on measures to provide information on, and to
promote, agricultural products in third countries (1), and in
particular Article 11 thereof,

Whereas:

(6)

(7)

(8)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Practical experience has shown that it is necessary to
improve further the implementation of the information
and promotion regime for third countries market as
in Commission Regulation (EC) No
provided for
2879/2000 (2).

is necessary to provide that each Member State
It
designates the competent authority or authorities for
the application of Regulation (EC) No 2702/1999.
Member States should inform the Commission of the
names and contact details of these authorities, so as to
ensure that this information can be made available in a
continuously 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.

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
the
however be permitted to vary certain terms of
contracts in order to take account of national rules.

(1) OJ L 327, 21.12.1999, p. 7.
(2) OJ L 333, 29.12.2000, p. 63. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 2171/2003 (OJ L 326, 13.12.2003, p. 6).

It should be clarified that for multiannual 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
Regulation applicable to the general budget of
the
European Communities (3).

(9)

Regulation (EC) No 2879/2000 should be amended
accordingly.

(10)

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 2879/2000 is amended as follows:

1. the following Article 3a is inserted:

‘Article 3a

for

Member States shall designate the competent authority or
the application of Regulation (EC) No
authorities
2702/1999. 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

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

L 318/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

19.10.2004

2.

in Article 7(1), the following subparagraph is added:

even in case where no application for payment of
the balance is introduced.’;

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

(b) Paragraph 7 is replaced by the following:

3.

in Article 11, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

‘2.
The Member States shall conclude contracts with the
selected organisations within 60 calendar days of notification
of the Commission decision. In case of programmes jointly
presented by several professional or interprofessional organi-
sations 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.

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

4. Article 13 is amended as follows:

(a) Paragraph 2 is amended as follows:

(i)

the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘2.
Applications for payment of the balance shall
be submitted within four months of completion of
the annual measures covered by the contract.’;

(ii) the following paragraph 2a is inserted:

‘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

They shall send to the Commission twice a year the
quarterly interim reports
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.’;

5. In Article 15(1), the second subparagraph is replaced by the

following:

‘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.’

Article 2

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

its publication in the Official

Journal of

‘2a.
the internal
shall be
report
submitted after completion of each annual phase,

For multi-annual programmes,
referred to in paragraph 2(c)

However, point 2 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, 18 October 2004.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER
Member of the Commission