Commission Regulation (EC) No 1360/2005 of 18 August 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 817/2004 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
Date: 2005-08-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EAGGF Guarantee Section, State aid, aid system, aid to agriculture, regional aid, rural development

19.8.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 214/55

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1360/2005

of 18 August 2005

amending Regulation (EC) No 817/2004 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council
Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural
Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

(4)

Regulation (EC) No 817/2004 should therefore be
amended accordingly. The amendments should apply as
from 1 January 2005, when some of the initial contracts
might have expired.

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17
May 1999 on support for rural development from the European
Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and
amending and repealing certain Regulations (1), and in particular
Article 34 thereof,

Whereas:

Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 provides
that the Community may fund farmers who enter into
agri-environmental commitments, but that these are to
involve more than the application of usual good farming
practice. Some of the agri-environmental commitments,
given for a five-year period, expire before 31 December
2006. With the introduction of the principle of cross-
compliance provided for in Chapter 1 of Title II of
Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, establishing
common rules for direct support schemes under the
common agricultural policy (2),
the obligations which
apply to farmers in the absence of agri-environmental
commitments are different. New rules will apply to the
agri-environmental measure for the next rural devel-
opment programming period 2007 to 2013.

(5)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion of the Committee on Agri-
cultural Structures and Rural Development,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 817/2004 is amended as follows:

1) In Article 21, the following paragraph is added:

‘3. Where agro-environmental commitments expire before
the end of the programming period fixed in Article 42 of
Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999, Member States may extend
them provided that the last year of the commitment does
not start later than 31 December 2006.

Instead of signing new five-year-contracts under rules
applicable to the current programming period, Member
States may wish to extend agri-environment contracts
with farmers currently in force so that the last year of
the commitment does not start later than 31 December
2006.

The Member States may authorise adaptations to the areas of
to take into
the holding covered by the commitment
account a transfer of a part of the beneficiary’s holding to
another person during the extension period, provided that
those adaptations do not reduce by more than 50 % the area
covered by the commitment.’

Greater flexibility should be provided in the framework
of Commission Regulation (EC) No 817/2004 (3) in cases
where farmers have transferred significant parts of the
area for which the initial agri-environment commitment
was given, while ensuring that the environmental benefits
of the commitment are continued.

2) The first and second paragraphs of Article 36 are replaced

by the following:

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

lation (EC) No 2223/2004 (OJ L 379, 24.12.2004, p. 1).

(2) OJ L 270, 21.10.2003, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by
Commission Regulation (EC) No 118/2005 (OJ L 24 , 27.1.2005,
p. 15)

(3) OJ L 153, 30.4.2004, p. 30.

‘Where all or part of a holding of the beneficiary is trans-
ferred to another person during the period for which a
commitment given as a condition for the grant of assistance
runs that other person may take over the commitment for
the remainder of the period. If the commitment is not taken
over, the beneficiary shall reimburse the assistance granted.

(1)

(2)

(3)

L 214/56

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Official Journal of the European Union

19.8.2005

Member States, applying the principle of proportionality,
may choose not
in the
following cases:

to require such reimbursement

not exceed 50 % of the area covered by the commitment
before the extension.’

(a)

if a beneficiary who has already honoured a significant
part of the commitment concerned definitively ceases
agricultural activities and it
for a
successor to take over the commitment;

feasible

is not

(b) if the transfer of a part of the holding of a beneficiary
occurs during a period of extension of the commitment
in accordance with Article 21(3) and if the transfer does

Article 2

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

It shall apply from 1 January 2005. However, the first sub-
paragraph of paragraph 3 of Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No
817/2004, as added by Article 1(1) of this Regulation, shall not
affect the validity of commitments extended before the date of
entry into force of this Regulation.

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

Done at Brussels, 18 August 2005.

For the Commission

Mariann FISCHER BOEL
Member of the Commission