9.10.2006   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 277/1

(1)

Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 (1) introduced general rules governing Community support for rural development policy for the programming period 2007 to 2013 and established priorities and measures for rural development.

(2)

Those general rules and measures should be adapted to allow their implementation in Bulgaria and Romania as from the date of accession of those countries to the European Union.

(3)

Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 establishes a compulsory Leader axis within the rural development programme, which must account for a minimum percentage of EAFRD contribution to the programme. Given the lack of experience of Bulgaria and Romania in implementing the Leader approach and in order to build sufficient local capacity to apply Leader, the average financial contribution of 2,5 % for the Leader axis should be applied for the period 2010 to 2013 for those countries.

(4)

With a view to allowing Bulgaria and Romania to benefit until 2013 from the transitional measures concerning the support to semi-subsistence agricultural holdings and the setting-up of producer groups, Bulgaria and Romania should be added to the list of countries benefiting from these measures.

(5)

Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 should therefore be amended accordingly,

1.

the following subparagraph shall be added to Article 17(2):

‘For Bulgaria and Romania, an average of at least 2,5 % of the EAFRD total contribution for axis 4 shall be respected during the period 2010 to 2013. Any contribution from the EAFRD for that axis during the period 2007 to 2009 shall be taken into account for the calculation of that percentage.’

2.

the introductory words in Article 20(d) shall be replaced by the following:

‘transitional measures for Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia concerning:’