Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014 of 11 March 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to public intervention expenditure

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down the conditions and rules applicable to the financing by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) of expenditure on intervention measures related to public storage.

Article 2

Intervention measures in the form of public storage

Intervention measures in the form of public storage may comprise buying-in, storage, transport and transfer of stocks, and the sale and disposal by other means of agricultural products under the terms laid down by the applicable sectoral agricultural legislation and by this Regulation.

Article 3

Financing of intervention expenditure incurred in the context of public storage operations

In the context of the public storage operations referred to in Article 2, the EAGF shall finance the following expenditure under the heading of intervention, provided that the corresponding expenditure has not otherwise been fixed under the applicable sectoral agricultural legislation:

(a) the financing costs for funds mobilised by the Member States to buy in products, in accordance with the calculation methods set out in Annex I;

(b) expenditure on physical operations relating to buying-in, sale or other forms of transfer of products (entry, storage and removal of products under public storage schemes), as referred to in Annex II, based on uniform standard amounts for the Union, calculated in accordance with the methods set out in Annex III;

(c) expenditure on physical operations not necessarily connected with buying-in, sale or other forms of transfer of products, on the basis of standard amounts or non-standard amounts in accordance with the provisions laid down by the Commission under the sectoral agricultural legislation relating to the products concerned and Annex IV;

(d) expenditure resulting from transport inside or outside the territory of the Member State or from export, on the basis of standard amounts or non-standard amounts, to be approved in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 229(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (¹);

(e) depreciation of stored products, in accordance with the calculation methods set out in Annex V;

(f) the differences (gains and losses) between the accounting value and the price of disposal of the products, or differences resulting from other factors.

For the purposes of this Regulation, accounting year means the period referred to in point (a) of Article 3(3) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014.

Article 4

Valuation of public storage operations

The value of the quantities bought in and sold shall be equal to the sum of the payments or receipts made or to be made for physical operations, except in the case of the specific provisions referred to in this Article and subject to:

(a) Annex VI, for missing quantities;

(b) Annex VII, for deteriorated or destroyed products;

(c) Annex VIII, for products which have entered storage but the taking-over of which has been refused.

However, in the cases and situations referred to in Annex VI and points 2(a) and (c) of Annex VII, increases, premiums, reductions, percentages and coefficients shall not be taken into consideration.

The value of products which have deteriorated or have been destroyed, either due to natural disasters or to too long a period of storage as referred to in point 2 of Annex VII to this Regulation, shall be determined by an implementing act of the Commission. That act shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 229(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.

Where intervention products are transferred from one Member State to another, the supplier Member State shall record the product delivered as a zero entry in the accounts and the Member State of destination shall record it as a receipt in the month of dispatch, using the price calculated in accordance with the first subparagraph.

However, if at the time of actual removal from storage the conditions are met for application of point (b) of Annex VI, the Commission shall be consulted in advance on the removal of the goods.

Article 5

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

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

ANNEX I

CALCULATION OF RATES FOR THE REIMBURSEMENT OF FINANCING COSTS

(Article 3(1)(a))

I. APPLICABLE INTEREST RATES

1.For the purposes of calculating the financing costs to be borne by the EAGF for the funds mobilised by the Member State for buying in products, the Commission shall fix a uniform interest rate in accordance with Article 20(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 throughout the Union. The uniform interest rate shall correspond to the average of the 3-month and 12-month forward EURIBOR rates, recorded during a 6-month reference period which is to be determined by the Commission, with a weighting of one-third and two-thirds respectively. If the EURIBOR is not available, the average €STR, recorded during that 6-month reference period, shall be used.

In the absence of any notification from a Member State, in the form and by the deadline referred to in the first subparagraph, the interest rate borne by that Member State shall be considered to be 0 %.

In the situation where a Member State declares that it did not bear any interest costs because it did not have agricultural products in public storage during the reference period, the Commission shall fix that rate on the basis of the average reference interest rates during the reference period referred to in the first paragraph of this point plus one percentage point. These reference interest rates shall be:

(a) For Member States whose currency is the euro, the EURIBOR 3 months or, if the EURIBOR is not available, the €STR;

(b) For Member States whose currency is not the euro, the IBOR 3 months applicable in each of those Member States or, if the IBOR is not available in the Member State concerned, the rate replacing the IBOR.

If the reference interests rates or the Euribor rates  referred to in point 1 are not all available for the entire reference period, the available rates for that period shall be used.

3.For each Member State concerned, the interest rate determined on the basis of  the provisions of point 2 shall be compared with the uniform interest rate fixed on the basis of  the provisions of point 1.The interest applicable to each Member State shall be the lower of these two interest rates.

The interest rates fixed by the Commission implementing regulation adopted on the basis of Article 20(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 shall be rounded to 1 decimal.

4.The Commission implementing regulation fixing the interest rate as referred to in point 3, second subparagraph, shall continue to apply until it is repealed by a new Commission implementing regulation fixing a new interest rate.

II.   CALCULATION OF FINANCING COSTS

1.The calculation of the financing costs shall be subdivided according to the validity periods of the interest rates fixed by the Commission in accordance with Part I.

2.The financing costs referred to in Article 3(1)(a) shall be calculated by applying the Member State’s interest rate to the average value per tonne of the product bought in, and then multiplying the product thus obtained by the average stock for the accounting year.

The average value per tonne of product shall be calculated by dividing the sum of the values of the products in store on the first day of the accounting year and of products bought in during that year by the sum of the quantities of products in store on the first day of the accounting year and of products bought in during the accounting year.

The average stock for the accounting year shall be calculated by dividing the sum of the stock at the beginning of each month and the stock at the end of each month by a number equal to twice the number of months in the accounting year.

3.Where a depreciation coefficient is fixed for a product in accordance with point 1 of Annex V, the value of the products bought in during the accounting year shall be calculated by deducting from the buying-in price the depreciation amount obtained by applying this coefficient.

4.In the case of products for which a second depreciation has been fixed pursuant to the second subparagraph of point 3 of Annex V, the calculation of average stocks shall be made before the actual date of each depreciation taken into account for the purposes of the average value.

5.Where the rules governing common market organisations stipulate that payment for a product bought in by an paying agency may not be effected until at least one month has elapsed from the date of taking over, the average stock calculated shall be reduced by a quantity resulting from the following calculation:

where

For the purposes of this calculation, the minimum period given in the rules shall be taken as the period for payment. A month shall be considered as consisting of 30 days. Any part of a month longer than 15 days shall be considered a whole month; any part of a month equal to or less than 15 days shall not be taken into account for this calculation.

Where the calculation of average stock at the end of the accounting year gives a negative result once the reduction referred to in the first subparagraph has been effected, that amount shall be deducted from the average stock calculated for the following accounting year.

III.   SPECIAL RULES UNDER THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PAYING AGENCIES

1.Where, for the sale of products by paying agencies, the rules governing the common market organization or notices of invitation to tender allow the purchaser of such products a period in which to remove them once payment has been made, and where such period exceeds 30 days, the financing costs calculated in accordance with Part II shall be reduced, in the accounts of the paying agencies, by the amount obtained from the following calculation:

where

2.In the case of sales of agricultural products by paying agencies based on specific Union regulations, where the actual period for payment after removal of such products exceeds 30 days, the financing costs calculated in accordance with Part II shall be increased in the accounts of the paying agencies by the amount obtained from the following calculation:

where

3.At the end of each accounting year, the financing costs referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be entered in the accounts for that agricultural financial year for the number of days to be considered until that date and the remainder shall be entered under the following accounting year.

ANNEX II

PHYSICAL OPERATIONS COVERED BY THE STANDARD AMOUNTS

(Article 3(1)(b))

Cereals and rice

(a)physical movement of cereals from means of transport to arrival at storage cell (silo or store compartment) - first transfer;

(b)weighing;

(c)sampling/analysis/establishment of quality.

(a)rent of premises at contract price;

(b)insurance costs (unless included under (a));

(c)pest control costs ensuring the initial quality of the product in store (unless included under (a));

(d)annual inventory (unless included under (a));

(e)ventilation, if any (unless included under (a)).

(a)weighing of cereals;

(b)sampling/analysis (if chargeable to intervention);

(c)physical removal and loading of cereals onto first means of transport.

Beef/veal

(a)quality control of bone-in meat;

(b)weighing of bone-in meat;

(c)handling;

(d)contract cost of boning, including:

(i) initial chilling;

(ii) transport from the intervention storage place to cutting premises (unless seller delivers goods to cutting premises);

(iii) boning, trimming, weighing, packaging and rapid freezing;

(iv) temporary storage of cuts; loading, carriage and re-entry to the intervention storage place’s cold store;

(v) cost of packaging materials: polythene bags, cardboard boxes, stockinettes;

(vi) value of bones, pieces of fat and other trimmings left at the cutting premises (receipts to be deducted from costs).

(a)rent of premises at contract price;

(b)insurance costs (unless included under (a));

(c)temperature control (unless included under (a));

(d)annual inventory (unless included under (a)).

(a)weighing;

(b)quality check (if responsibility of intervention authorities);

(c)transfer of meat from cold store to store’s loading bay.

Butter

(a)movement of butter from means of transport on arrival at store to storage cell;

(b)weighing and identification of packages;

(c)sampling/quality check;

(d)entry into cold store and freezing;

(e)second sampling/quality check at end of test period.

(a)rent of premises at contract price;

(b)insurance costs (unless included under (a));

(c)temperature control (unless included under (a));

(d)annual inventory (unless included under (a)).

(a)weighing and identification of packages;

(b)movement of butter from cold room to store loading bay if means of transport is a container, or loaded at store bay if means of transport is a lorry or railway wagon.

If such labelling is compulsory under the Union law on disposal.

Skimmed-milk powder

(a)movement of skimmed-milk powder from means of transport on arrival to storage chamber;

(b)weighing;

(c)sampling/quality check;

(d)check on marking and packaging.

(a)rent of premises at contract price;

(b)insurance costs (unless included under (a));

(c)temperature control (unless included under (a));

(d)annual inventory (unless included under (a)).

(a)weighing;

(b)sampling/inspection of goods (if responsibility of intervention authorities);

(c)movement of skimmed-milk powder to loading bay of store and loading, excluding stowage, on means of transport if a lorry or railway wagon; movement of skimmed-milk powder to loading bay of store if another means of transport, e.g. container.

If such labelling is compulsory under the Union law on disposal.

ANNEX III

STANDARD AMOUNTS FOR THE UNION

(Article 3(1)(b))

I. STANDARD AMOUNTS APPLICABLE

1.Standard amounts to apply throughout the Union shall be established, by product, on the basis of the lowest costs recorded during a reference period beginning on 1 October of year n and ending on 30 April the following year.

2.‘Costs recorded’ means the costs for the physical operations referred to in Annex II which took place during the reference period, on the basis of either individual invoices for these operations or a contract signed to cover them. If a stock of a given product exists during the reference period without there having been either entries or removals, the reference costs in the storage contracts for that product may also be used.

The costs for accepting and entry in storage (I) and for removal from storage (III) shall be declared per tonne of product involved for each individual action (a, b, c,…) as defined in Annex II. The costs for storage (II) shall be declared on a per month basis for each tonne stored for each individual action (a, b, c,…) as defined in Annex II.

3.The Member States shall notify the Commission no later than 10 May of the costs mentioned in point 2 relating to the operations referred to in Annex II borne during the reference period. The standard amounts referred to in point 1 shall be established in euro on the basis of the weighted average of these costs recorded during the reference period in at least four Member States with the lowest costs for a given physical operation, if the latter correspond to at least 33 % of the average total stored quantities of the product in question during the reference period. Otherwise, the costs of other Member States shall be included in the weighting until the percentage attains 33 % of the stored quantities.

4.If fewer than four Member States place a given product in public storage or notify costs for a physical operation relating to a product referred to in Annex II, the standard amounts for that product shall be established on the basis of the costs recorded in the Member States concerned. However, the final standard amount for that product cannot differ from the previously established amount by more than 2 %.

5.If the costs for a product in storage declared by a Member State and used in the calculation referred to in points 3 and 4 are more than twice the arithmetic mean of the costs declared for this calculation by the other Member States, then that cost shall be reduced to the level of the arithmetic mean.

6.The costs used for the calculation referred to in points 3 and 4 shall be weighted on the basis of the quantities stored by the Member States included in the calculation.

7.The costs declared by Member States whose currency is not the euro shall be converted into euro on the basis of the average conversion rate for their currency during the reference period referred to in point 1.

II.   SPECIAL PROVISIONS

1.The standard cost of removal from storage may be increased by an amount to be calculated by the Commission in accordance with Article 20(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 provided that the Member State submits a declaration, covering the entire accounting year involved and the entire stock of the product in question, that it will not apply the tolerance limits referred to in Article 4(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 and will stand guarantee for the quantity.

This declaration shall be addressed to the Commission and shall reach it before it receives the first monthly declaration of the accounting year concerned or, if the product in question is not in intervention storage at the beginning of the accounting year, not later than the month following that in which the product first enters storage.

The increase provided for in the first subparagraph shall be calculated by multiplying the reference threshold of the product concerned, as referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, by the tolerance limit for that product fixed in Annex IV to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014.

2.The standard amounts established for the cost of entry into and removal from stores of all products in storage except for beef/veal shall be reduced by the following coefficients if the quantities concerned are not physically moved.