CELEX: 31976D0947
Language: en
Date: 1976-12-03 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 3 December 1976 on the implementation of the reform of agricultural structures in the French Republic pursuant to Title II of Directive 75/268/EEC

31 . 12 . 76                              Official Journal of the European Communities                              No L 364/ 35
                                                     COMMISSION DECISION
                                                          of 3 December 1976
              on the implementation of the reform of agricultural structures in the French Republic
                                            pursuant to Title II of Directive 75 /268/EEC
                                                   (Only the French text is authentic)
                                                              ( 76/947/EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                          Whereas Directive 75 / 268 / EEC therefore authorizes
 COMMUNITIES ,                                                           the Member States to introduce a system of aid to
                                                                         encourage farming and raise farm incomes in those
                                                                         areas ;
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
 European Economic Community,
 Having regard to Council Directive 72/ 159/EEC of                      Whereas this aid may take the form of a
  17 April 1972 on the modernization of farms, and in                    compensatory allowance for the permanent natural
particular Article 18 (3 ) thereof,                                      handicaps, paid to farmers who undertake to pursue
                                                                         a farming activity in accordance with the aims of the
                                                                        Directive for at least five more years ; whereas in the
 Having regard to Council Directive 75/268/EEC of                        case of cattle, sheep and goat farming the allowance
 28 April 1975 on mountain and hill farming and                          is calculated in relation to livestock numbers and
 farming in certain less-favoured areas (2 ), and in                    may not exceed 52-50 units of account per livestock
particular Article 13 thereof,                                           unit and 52-50 units of account per hectare of forage
                                                                        area with a minimum of 16 units of account per
Whereas on 9 June 1976 the French Government                            livestock unit; whereas Directive 75/268/EEC
notified, pursuant to Article 13 of Directive 75/268/                   contains a table for converting cattle, sheep or goats
EEC in conjunction with Article 17 (4) of Directive                     into livestock units ;
72/ 159/EEC, Decree No 74-134 of 20 February 1974
introducing a special mountain allowance for
farmers in mountain and hill areas who practise
 farming as their main occupation ;                                     Whereas, in addition to the conditions laid down in
                                                                        Articles 6 and 7 of the Directive, the Member States
Whereas the French Government announced at the                          may fix supplementary conditions or restrictions
same time that the system of aid set up by the above                    regarding the granting of the compensatory
decree would continue to be valid only for 1976 and                     allowance ;
would be replaced by a new system with effect from
 1977 ;
                                                                        Whereas the abovementioned decree provides for an
Whereas Article 18 (3 ) of Directive 72/ 159 /EEC and                   allowance of FF 200 per livestock unit, whereby in
Article 13 of Directive 75/268/EEC require the                          the field of cattle raising a cow which has calved
Commission to decide whether, having regard to the                      counts as one livestock unit and all other cattle over
compatibility of the decree notified with Directive                     one year old as 0-5 livestock unit ; whereas no
75/268/EEC and taking into account the objectives                       allowance is paid for young animals less than a year
of that Directive and the need for a proper                             old ;
connection between the various measures, the
conditions for a financial contribution by the
Community are satisfied ;
                                                                        Whereas this deviation from the conversion table for
Whereas it is a basic aim of Directive 75/268 /EEC to                   expressing cattle, sheep and goats as livestock units,
ensure the continuation of farming in the less­                         as laid down in Article 7 ( 1 ) of Directive 75 / 268 /EEC
favoured areas determined by the Council thus                           in conjunction with the Annex thereto, which
maintaining a iminimum (population level or                             essentially means that preference is given to dairy
conserving the countryside ;                                            farms, cannot yet be held to endanger the objectives
                                                                        of the Directives especially as in all other cases the
(*) OJ No L 96, 23 . 4. 1972, p . 1 .                                   allowance granted — even when the conversion table
(2 ) OJ No L 128 , 19 . 5 . 1975 , p . 1 .                              is used — still lies above the minimum figure of
 ---pagebreak--- No L 364/36                        Official Journal of the European Communities                           31 . 12 . 76
16 units of account per livestock unit and the                HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
communication from the French Government ensures
that this formula will be amended in future years so
as to comply fully with the provisions of the                                       Article 1
Directives ;
                                                              1.    Decree   No   74-134    introducing  a    special
                                                              mountain allowance for farmers in mountain and
                                                              hill areas who practise farming as their main
                                                              occupation, notified by the French Government on
Whereas, taken as a whole, Decree No 74-134                   9 June 1976, satisfies the conditions for financial
therefore meets the requirements of Directive 75 /268 /       contribution by the Community to common
EEC and in particular the objective of maintaining a          measures as referred to in Article 13 of Directive
minimum population level ;                                    75 /268 /EEC and Article 15 of Directive 72/ 159 / EEC .
                                                              2.    Financial participation by the Community
                                                              applies to payments arising from the granting of the
                                                              allowance provided for in Decree No 74-134 in 1975
Whereas since the above measure is to apply only in           and 1976 .
 1975 and 1976 in its present form the Decision
should be limited to this period ;
                                                                                    Article 2
                                                              This Decision is addressed to France .
Whereas the EAGGF Committee has been consulted
on the financial aspects ;
                                                              Done at Brussels, 3 December 1976.
                                                                                       For the Commission
Whereas the measures provided for in this Decision                                       P. J. LARDINOIS
are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing
Committee on Agricultural Structures,                                             Member of the Commission