CELEX: 51988PC0597(01)
Language: en
Date: 1988-10-31
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) INSTITUTING SPECIFIC MEASURES FOR NUTE AND AMENDING REGULATION ( EEC ) NO 1035/72 ON THE COMMON ORGANIZATION OF THE MARKET IN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

15. 12. 88                              Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 322/19
                Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) instituting specific measures for nuts and amending
                Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72 on the common organization of the market in fruit and
                                                            vegetables
                                                       COM(88) 597 final
                                      (Submitted by the Commission on 31 October 1988)
                                                          (88/C 322/12)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            whereas such an incentive could be provided by financial
                                                                    contributions from the Member State and from the
                                                                    Community to setting up the funds, with a ceiling
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               determined with reference to the value of the products
Economic Community, and in particular Article 43                    marketed by the producers' organizations over a given
thereof,                                                            marketing year;
Having regard        to  the   opinion   of   the   European        Whereas in the interests of further encouraging
Parliament,                                                         producers who are members of an organization to
                                                                    modernize their orchards in order to meet market
                                                                    requirements, the granting of the aid should be made
Whereas the situation on the market for nuts, that is               conditional on the formation of an organization, the
essentially that for almonds, hazel nuts and walnuts, is            creation of a revolving fund and the presentation of a
markedly out of step with technical and commercial                  varietal conversion and marketing modernization plan
requirements from the point of view of both technical               which must be approved by the national authorities
production conditions, which are typified by a large                designated by the Member States; whereas in order to be
number of small holdings and a low level of mechan-                 consistent with the aims of the scheme, these plans must
ization, leading in turn to low productivity and high               seek primarily to bring about a genetic and cultural
costs, and from that of marketing conditions;                       improvement of products grown in orchards given over
                                                                    solely to nuts;
Whereas the formation of producers' organizations
placing an obligation on their members to comply with               Whereas a specific aid should be granted for the drawing
rules adopted by the organizations in the interests of              up of such plans and should be co-financed by the
better adapting product quality and the volume of supply            Member States and the Community; whereas the level of
to market requirements would be a suitable way of                   the aid should nevertheless be restricted and the aid itself
remedying the structural deficiencies referred to above;            temporary and degressive to allow a progressive shift of
whereas provisions for facilitating the formation and               financial responsibility onto the procedures;
operation of such organizations should be adopted;
                                                                    Whereas in the interests of bringing the products to the
Whereas an incentive of this kind can be provided in the            attention of existing and potential users, promoting
first instance by granting a flat-rate aid for the formation        marketing which is in line with market needs and giving
of these organizations which would be paid in full for              impetus to the activity of nut producers' organizations,
the first year following the year of an organization's              provision should be made for the Community to
recognition by the appropriate Member State, and in                 contribute to the financing of schemes to develop and
addition to the aid provided for in Article 14 of Council           improve the consumption and use of these products,
Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72 of 18 May 1972 on the
common organization of the market in fruit and
vegetables ('), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No              HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
. . . 7 8 8 ; whereas provisions should be made for the
Community to co-finance this scheme by paying 50 % of
the aid granted by the Member State;                                                          Article 1
                                                                    Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72 is hereby amended as
Whereas in order to allow producers' organizations                  follows:
which produce and market nuts to concentrate supplies,
to stagger the release onto the market of their products,
particularly by creating the appropriate storage capacity,           1. the following is added to the first subparagraph of
and to improve product quality, the creation of revolving               Article 1 (3):
funds for these organizations should be encouraged;
                                                                        — 'fresh or dried nuts, from 1 September to 31
(') OJ No L 118, 20. 5. 1972, p. 1.                                         August';
 ---pagebreak--- No C 322/20                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                15. 12. 88
2. the following Title Ha is added:                                 and to permit an improvement in packaging in the
                                                                    interests of better marketing. The organizations shall
   'TITLE Ha                                                        use the fund in particular to finance storage, sorting,
   Specific measures for nuts                                       cracking and packaging.
   Article 14a
                                                                    3.     The specific aid shall be paid once only, subject
   For the purposes of this Title, "nuts" shall be taken to         to the fund being financed as follows:
   mean:                                                            — 50 % by the producers' organization,
   — almonds falling within CN codes 0802 11 90 and                 — 15 % by the Member State.
        0802 12 90,
   — hazel nuts falling within CN codes 0802 21 00 and
        0802 22 00,                                                 The Community contribution shall be 35 % of the
                                                                    capital of the fund. However, the overall financial
   — walnuts falling within CN codes 0802 31 00 and                 commitment of the Member State and the
        0802 32 00.                                                 Community may not exceed 15 % of the value of the
                                                                    production marketed by the producers' organization
   Article 14b                                                      in one marketing year.
   1.     Without prejudice to the provisions of Article
    14, the Member States shall grant an additional
                                                                    Article 14d
   flat-rate aid as an incentive to the formation of
   producers' organizations whose economic activity
   centres on the production and marketing of nuts and               1.    Producers' organizations shall qualify for the aid
   which have presented a varietal conversion and                   provided for in Articles 14b and 14c provided they
   marketing improvement plan approved by the                       present a varietal conversion and              marketing
   competent national authorities pursuant to Article               improvement plan approved by the competent auth-
    14d.                                                            orities of the appropriate Member State.
   The aid shall be granted to producers' organizations
   for the first year following the year in which they are          The plans referred to in the first subparagraph shall
   recognized by the competent national authority.                  have as their primary aim the improvement of the
                                                                    quality of produce from single-crop plantations given
   2.     The level of the aid referred to in paragraph 1           over exclusively to nuts and, where needed, the
   shall be calculated according to the quantity of nuts            improvement of marketing. They shall bring about the
   marketed by the producers' organization during its               implementation of measures adopted according to the
   first marketing year; a single amount shall be fixed             procedure referred to in Article 14g.
   for each quantity tranche.
   The aid granted shall be refunded by the European                2.     The approved plans shall qualify for Community
   Agricultural     Guidance    and     Guarantee     Fund,         aid for their execution, provided they are funded to a
   Guidance Section, at a rate of 50 °/o.                           level of at least 50 °/o by the producers' organizations
                                                                    and a level of 50 % by the Member State. Community
   3.     The Member States shall notify to the
                                                                    aid shall account for 70 % of the Member State's
   Commission details of the producers' organizations
                                                                    contribution.
   recognized under this Article, giving their membership
   figures and the quantities of nuts marketed by each
   during their first marketing year.                                Funding from the Member State and aid from the
                                                                    Community shall nevertheless be subject to a per
   4.     The Council, acting by a qualified majority on a
                                                                    hectare ceiling.
   proposal from the Commission, shall determine the
   size of the tranches referred to in paragraph 2 and the
   amount of aid to apply within the span of each                   Funding from the Member State and aid from the
   tranche.                                                         Community shall be paid over a period of ten years.
                                                                    The maximum level shall progessively decrease.
   Article 14c
    1.    Member States shall grant a specific aid to                3.    Acting by a qualified majority on a proposal
   producers' organizations which set up a revolving                from the Commission, the Council shall fix:
   fund in accordance with the provisions set out below,            — the per hectare ceiling imposed on funding from
   having presented a varietal conversion and marketing                  the Member State and aid from the Community,
   improvement plan approved by the competent                       — the rate at which funding from the Member State
   national authorities pursuant to Article 14d.                         and aid from the Community shall decrease.
   2.     The revolving fund shall be used to stabilize              4.    Member States shall forward to the Commission
   supply by providing funding for the storage needed to             the plans submitted to them by the producers' organ-
   allow an appropriate timing of sales on the market,               izations. These plans may be approved by the
 ---pagebreak--- 15. 12. 88                           Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 322/21
   competent authority of the Member State only after              Article 14/
   they have been forwarded to the Commission, and
   once a 60-day period, during which the Commission               1.    The aid provided for in Articles 14c, 14d and
   may request changes or complete rejection, has                  14e shall be deemed to be intervention intended to
   elapsed.                                                        stabilize the agricultural markets within the meaning
                                                                   of Article 3 (1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No
                                                                   729/70 (').
   Article 14e                                                     2.    As regards the aid referred to in paragraph 1,
                                                                   the Commission may, at the request of the interested
                                                                   Member State and in accordance with the procedure
   1.    The Community shall provide 50 % of the                   provided for in Article 13 of Regulation (EEC) No
   funding for measures aimed at developing and                    729/70, decide to pay an initial part of allocations on
   improving the consumption and use of nuts in the                the basis of the varietal conversion and marketing
   Community, subject to the following conditions:                 improvement plans approved by the Member States.
                                                                   Article 14g
   2.    The measures referred to in paragraph 1 shall             The Commission shall, in accordance with the
   have as their aim:                                              procedure provided for in Article 33, adopt detailed
   — to promote product quality, particularly by means             rules for the application of this Title. These rules shall
       of market research and research into new product            include measures of a kind which will enable use of
       uses, including ways to adapt the products to the           the financial contribution provided by the Community
       findings of this research,                                  to be monitored.
   — the development of new packaging methods,
   — the dissemination of marketing advice to the                  C) OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13.'
       various economic operators in the sector,                3. In Annex 1, under the heading 'fruit', the following is
   — organization of and participation in trade fairs              added:
       and other events.
                                                                   'almonds, hazel nuts, walnuts'.
   3.     Following the procedure referred to in Article                                  Article 2
   14d, the Commission shall adopt detailed rules of            This Regulation shall enter into force on . . .
   application for this Article and shall make a more
   detailed definition of the measures referred to in           This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
   paragraph 2 or shall define new measures.                    directly applicable in all Member States.