Commission Regulation (EC) No 2467/97 of 11 December 1997 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 2200/97 on the improvement of the Community production of apples, pears, peaches and nectarines

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2467/97

of 11 December 1997

laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 2200/97 on the improvement of the Community production of apples, pears, peaches and nectarines

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2200/97 of 30 October 1997 on the improvement of the Community production of apples, pears, peaches and nectarines(1), and in particular Article 6 thereof,

Whereas, in order to meet the objectives of Regulation (EC) No 2200/97, the conditions should be laid down for granting the premium for the grubbing up of apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and nectarine trees provided for in that Regulation, hereinafter called ‘the grubbing up premium’; whereas, to that end, the areas and the fruit trees which may be grubbed up and the level of the premium should be determined;

Whereas, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the scheme and to permit an assessment of the results of its implementation, it is essential that the particulars which are to appear in the application for the premium should be specified and that the accuracy of such information should be checked; whereas the undertakings to be given by the applicant with regard to the planting of apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and nectarine trees on his holding after grubbing up should be laid down; whereas the information to be provided by the Member States to the Commission after grubbing up should be specified; whereas that information should be broken down by variety and area of production as set out in Annexes II and III to Commission Decision 77/144/EEC of 22 December 1976 laying down the standard code and rules governing the transcription into a machine-readable form of the data of the surveys of plantations of certain species of fruit trees, and laying down the boundaries of the production areas for these surveys(2), as last amended by Decision 96/689/EC(3);

Whereas, in accordance with Article 1 (2) of Regulation (EC) No 2200/97, the conditions under which the Commission may alter the allocation by Member State mentioned in that Article and the conditions under which the Member States determine the areas which may receive the grubbing up premium should be established;

Whereas, in order to avert the risk of the grubbed up trees being replanted, provision should be made for them to be rendered unsuitable for such use;

Whereas, before the premium is paid, it should be established that grubbing up has actually taken place;

Whereas all the provisions necessary to ensure compliance with the undertakings given by the recipient of the grubbing-up premium and the penalties to be imposed in the event of non-compliance should be laid down;

Whereas the operative event for the conversion rate is set at 1 January of the year to which the decision to pay the aid relates, in accordance with Article 11 (2) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1068/93(4), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1482/96(5);

Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Fruit and Vegetables,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

• (a) the name and address of the applicant;

• (b) the name, if any, and address of the holding concerned;

• (c) for each parcel planted with apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and/or nectarine trees, the total area planted with those species, broken down by species, and the information, of an administrative nature, from the land register and/or in graphic form, required to identify and locate the parcel and the area planted;

• (d) for each of the parcels on which grubbing up operations are to take place and for which the premium is applied for, the total number of trees within the meaning of Article 1 (1), broken down by species, and the breakdown by variety of the area planted;

• (e) where necessary, the information, of an administrative nature, from the land register and/or in graphic form, required to identify and locate the parcels on which a grubbing up operation has been carried out pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1200/90(6) as regards apple trees or pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 2505/95(7) as regards peach trees and nectarine trees.

• (a) by a written undertaking by the applicant to refrain for a period of 15 years, first, from planting any apple trees (other than cider-apple trees), pear trees (other than perry-pear trees), peach trees and/or nectarine trees on the areas of his holding affected by the grubbing up operation and, second, from extending the other areas of his holding planted with apple trees (other than cider-apple trees), pear trees (other than perry-pear trees), peach trees and/or nectarine trees;

• (b) under the conditions laid down by national law, by the written consent to the grubbing up operation of the owner of the parcels planted with apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and/or nectarine trees. Such consent of the owner or owners shall constitute an undertaking by the same, in the event of the sale, leasing or transfer by any other method of such parcels during the period referred to in point (a), to transfer to any new grower the undertaking referred to therein.

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

• — they shall take steps to recover the grubbing up premium paid, plus interest calculated on the basis of the time between the payment of the premium and its reimbursement by the beneficiary,

and

• — they shall require the offender to pay an amount equal to that of the grubbing up premium paid.

The rate of the interest referred to in the first subparagraph shall be the rate applied by the European Monetary Institute to its transactions in ecus as published in the ‘C’ series of the Official Journal of the European Communities, in force on the date of the undue payment and increased by three percentage points.

Article 8

• (a) the areas for which applications for the grubbing up premium have been submitted;

• (b) the areas for which applications for the grubbing up premium have been accepted pursuant to Article 5;

and

• (c) the areas actually grubbed up for which a grubbing up premium has been paid;

broken down by species, variety and area of production.

• (a) an estimate of the area planted with apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and/or nectarine trees before the grubbing-up operation;

• (b) production and withdrawals during the last five marketing years;

and

• (c) the average yield, or production, during the last five marketing years of all the areas actually grubbed up for which the grubbing-up premium was paid;

broken down by species.

• (a) the varieties and areas of production shall be those set out in Annexes II and III to Decision 77/144/EEC;

• (b) ‘the last five marketing years’ shall mean the marketing years 1992/93 to 1996/97 for apples and pears and the marketing years 1993 to 1997 for peaches and nectarines.

Article 9

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

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

Done at Brussels, 11 December 1997.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission

(1)  OJ L 303, 6. 11. 1997, p. 3.

(2)  OJ L 47, 18. 2. 1977, p. 52.

(3)  OJ L 318, 7. 12. 1996, p. 14.

(4)  OJ L 108, 1. 5. 1993, p. 106.

(5)  OJ L 188, 27. 7. 1996, p. 22.

(6)  OJ L 119, 11. 5. 1990, p. 63.

(7)  OJ L 258, 28. 10. 1995, p. 1.