Commission Regulation (EC) No 590/2008 of 23 June 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 laying down implementing rules of Council Regulations (EC) No 2200/96, (EC) No 2201/96 and (EC) No 1182/2007 in the fruit and vegetable sector and derogating from that Regulation
Date: 2008-06-23
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: CCT duties, aid system, financial aid, import licence, marketing standard, operational programme, producer organisation, quality label

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COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 590/2008

of 23 June 2008

amending Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 laying down implementing rules of Council Regulations
(EC) No 2200/96, (EC) No 2201/96 and (EC) No 1182/2007 in the fruit and vegetable sector and
derogating from that Regulation

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

postpone the approval of operational programmes and
funds until 20 January.

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 of
26 September 2007 laying down specific rules as regards the
fruit and vegetable sector, amending Directives 2001/112/EC
and 2001/113/EC and Regulations (EEC) No 827/68, (EC) No
2200/96,
(EC) No
1782/2003 and (EC) No 318/2006 and repealing Regulation
(EC) No 2202/96 (1), and in particular Article 42(b), (f) and (j),

(EC) No 2826/2000,

(EC) No 2201/96,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 provides
that national
financial assistance may be granted in
regions where the degree of organisation of producers
is particularly low. This assistance should be additional
to the operational fund. In order to permit a producer
organisation to include the additional support
in its
the operational programme
operational programme,
should be amended if necessary.
In this case Member
States should be able to increase the percentage limit
set in Article 67(2)(c) of Commission Regulation (EC)
No 1580/2007 (2) by which the amount of the opera-
tional fund initially approved can be increased.

Article 82(2)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007
provides that payment for transport costs for free distri-
bution shall be subject to the presentation of documents
certifying the transport costs actually incurred. However,
the transport costs
related to free distribution are
financed by flat-rate amounts set in Annex XI to that
Regulation, so there is no need for such information,
instead information should be required on the
but
distance which is used as a basis for the calculation of
the flat-rate amount.

It is appropriate to change the date set in Article 94(1) of
Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 by which Member States
shall submit a request to the Commission for authorisa-
tion to grant national financial assistance to producer
to take into
organisations
the existing possibility for Member States to
account

to 31 January,

in order

(1) OJ L 273, 17.10.2007, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 350, 31.12.2007, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 498/2008 (OJ L 146, 5.6.2008, p. 7).

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Article 97(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 estab-
lishes that Member States should request Community
reimbursement of approved national financial assistance
actually paid to producer organisations before 1 March of
the year following the yearly implementation of
the
operational programmes. Since Member States pay the
the year
producer organisations by 15 October of
following
the
of
implementation
programme, the deadline for Member States to request
reimbursement from the Commission, should therefore
be extended to 1 January of the second year following
the year of implementation of the programme.

year

the

of

The fourth subparagraph of Article 116(2) of Regulation
(EC) No 1580/2007 provides that Member States may
make payments after the deadline set out in Article 71 of
that Regulation where this is necessary. However, a final
deadline should be set for such payments for reasons of
good financial management. A similar set of provisions
should also be added to Article 116(3) of that Regulation
for the same reasons.

Point (b) of the first paragraph of Article 122 of Regu-
lation (EC) No 1580/2007 requires that producer orga-
nisations be required to reimburse the Community
contribution where recipients of products withdrawn
from the market are obliged to repay the value of the
products they received plus the related sorting, packaging
and transport
to irregularities. However,
producer organisations should not be made responsible
recipients of
for
withdrawn products and therefore
requirement
should be removed.

irregularities

attributable

costs due

to the

this

In order to ensure legal certainty and equality between
Member States, it should be made clear that for opera-
tional programmes
implemented in 2007 provisions
identical to those contained in Commission Regulation
(EC) No 544/2001 of 20 March 2001 laying down rules
the application of Council Regulation (EC) No
for
2200/96 as regards additional
financial assistance to
operational funds (3) should continue to apply.

(3) OJ L 81, 21.3.2001, p. 20.

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(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

Article 47(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 provides
that applications for aid covering semestrial periods may
be submitted only if the recognition plan is broken into
semestrial periods. However, such applications could be
made for plans approved prior to 2008 under Council
Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 of 28 October 1996 on the
common organization of the market in fruit and vege-
tables (1). It is appropriate to provide for a transitional
measure to allow for such applications in this case.

In the interests of legal certainty, and to ensure a smooth
transition between the regime under Regulation (EC) No
2200/96 and that under Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007,
it is important to clarify that the aid rates should remain
unchanged for recognition plans accepted under Regu-
lation (EC) No 2200/96 which continue to benefit
from acceptance pursuant to Article 55(4) of Regulation
(EC) No 1182/2007 for producer groups not in Member
States which acceded to the Community on 1 May 2004
or after that date and not in the outermost regions of the
Community as referred to in Article 299(2) of the Treaty
in the smaller Aegean islands as referred to in
or
Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006
of 18 September 2006 laying down specific measures for
agriculture in favour of the smaller Aegean islands and
amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 (2) and for
producer groups which benefitted from Article 14(7) of
Regulation (EC) No 2200/96.

it

In the interests of legal certainty, and to protect acquired
to clarify that payments of
rights,
important
is
Community withdrawal
related
checks which concern 2007 withdrawals but which
were not yet made by 31 December 2007 may never-
theless be made after that date in accordance with the
rules in force at that date.

compensation

and

it

should be

expectations,

legal certainty, and to protect
In the interests of
legitimate
clarified that
sanctions should not be applied on an application for
aid for operational programmes implemented in 2007
for acts or omissions in that period which would be
more severe than that applicable under the legislation
in force at the time.

(12)

Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 should therefore be
amended accordingly.

(13) Given the difficulties of Member States to adapt to the
new rules on national financial assistance in Regulation
(EC) No 1580/2007 for operational programmes im-
plemented in 2007 and 2008,
is appropriate to
adopt transitional rules to allow for derogations from
the dates set in Article 94 of that Regulation.

it

(1) OJ L 297, 21.11.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 1234/2007 (OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p. 1).

(2) OJ L 265, 26.9.2006, p. 1.

(14)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion of
the Management
Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural
Markets,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 is amended as follows:

1.

in Article 67(2), point (c) is replaced by the following:

‘(c)

the operational

increase the amount of
fund by a
maximum of 25 %, and decrease it by a percentage to
be fixed by Member States, of
initially
approved provided the overall objectives of the opera-
tional programme are maintained. Member States may
increase this percentage in case of mergers of producer
organisations as referred to in Article 31(1) and in case
of application of Article 94a.’;

the amount

2.

in Article 82(2), point (d) is replaced by the following:

‘(d)

the distance between the place of withdrawal and the
place of delivery.’;

3.

in Article 94(1), the first subparagraph is replaced by the
following:

‘Member States shall submit a request to the Commission for
authorisation to grant national financial assistance pursuant
to the first subparagraph of Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC)
No 1182/2007 for operational programmes to be im-
plemented in any given calendar year by 31 January of
that year.’;

4. after Article 94, the following Article 94a is inserted:

‘Article 94a

Modifications to the operational programme

A producer organisation wishing to apply for national
financial assistance shall, if necessary, modify its operational
programme pursuant to Article 67.’;

5.

in Article 97, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

shall

‘1. Member States
request Community reimbur-
financial assistance actually
sement of approved national
paid to producer organisations, before 1 January of
the
second year following the year of implementation of the
programme.

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set out

The request shall be accompanied by evidence showing that
the conditions
in the second subparagraph of
Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 have been
fulfilled in three of the previous four years, as well as details
the amount of
of
assistance actually paid and a description of the operational
fund broken out between total amount, contributions from
Community, Member State (national financial assistance) and
producer organisations and members.’;

the producer organisations concerned,

6. Article 116 is amended as follows:

(a)

the fourth subparagraph of paragraph 2 is replaced by
the following:

By way of derogation from Article 96,

in respect of
5.
operational programmes implemented in 2007, additional
financial assistance to operational funds shall be financed
by EAGF at a level of 50 % of
the financial assistance
granted to the producer organisation.

55(4)

to benefit

to Article

of Regulation

Recognition plans accepted under Regulation (EC) No
6.
from acceptance
2200/96 which continue
(EC) No
pursuant
1182/2007 for producer groups not
in Member States
which acceded to the Community on 1 May 2004 or after
the
that date and not
Community as referred to in Article 299(2) of the Treaty
or in the smaller Aegean islands as referred to in Article 1(2)
of Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006 shall be financed at the
rates set out
in Article 7(5)(b) of Regulation (EC) No
1182/2007.

in the outermost

regions of

‘Member States may make payments after the deadline
set out in Article 71 where this is necessary in order to
apply this paragraph. However, these later payments may
not in any case be made later than 15 October of the
second year following the year of implementation of the
programme.’;

Recognition plans accepted under Regulation (EC) No
2200/96 which benefitted from Article 14(7) of that Regu-
lation and continue to benefit from acceptance pursuant to
Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 shall be
financed at the rates set out in Article 7(5)(a) of Regulation
(EC) No 1182/2007.

(b) after the first subparagraph of paragraph 3, the following

subparagraph is inserted:

‘Member States may make payments after the deadline
set out in Article 71 where this is necessary in order to
apply this paragraph. However, these later payments may
not in any case be made later than 15 October of the
second year following the year of implementation of the
programme.’;

7.

in point (b) of the first paragraph of Article 122, the second
sentence is deleted;

8.

in Article 152, the following paragraphs are added:

‘4.
By way of derogation from Article 47(2) of this Regu-
lation, producers groups which are implementing recog-
nition plans to which Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No
1182/2007 applies and which are not broken into semestrial
periods may submit applications for aid covering semestrial
periods. Such applications may cover only semestrial periods
corresponding to the yearly segments which started before
2008.

Payments of Community withdrawal compensation
7.
and related checks which concern 2007 withdrawals but
which were not yet made by 31 December 2007 may never-
theless be made after that date in accordance with Title IV of
Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 as it existed at that date.

8. Where, in respect of an application for aid submitted
for operational programmes implemented in 2007 or before,
and in relation to acts or omissions which occurred in that
period, a sanction would apply under Section 3 of Chapter V
of Title III but a less severe sanction or no sanction would
have applied under the legislation in force at the time, then
that less severe sanction, or as the case may be, no sanction,
shall apply.’

Article 2

By way of derogation from Article 94 of Regulation (EC) No
1580/2007, in respect of operational programmes implemented
in 2007 and 2008, Member States shall submit a request to the
Commission for
financial
assistance pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 11(1)
of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 by 1 July 2008.

authorisation to pay national

Article 3

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

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

Done at Brussels, 23 June 2008.

For the Commission

Mariann FISCHER BOEL
Member of the Commission