(1)

Annex VIII to Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 establishes, for each Member State, the national ceilings which cannot be exceeded by the reference amounts referred to in Chapter 2 of Title III of that Regulation.

(2)

Pursuant to the first sentence of Article 20(3) of Regulation (EC) No 247/2006, Portugal decided to reduce the national ceiling of suckler cow premium rights for 2008 and subsequent years and to transfer the corresponding financial amount in order to strengthen the contribution made by the Community, in accordance with Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 247/2006, to financing specific measures provided for under that Regulation. The national ceilings for Portugal for 2008 and for subsequent years, as set out in Annex VIII to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 should therefore be reduced by the amount to be added to the financial sums established in Article 23(2) of Regulation (EC) No 247/2006 for 2009 and subsequent budgetary years.

(3)

For Member States implementing in 2008 the Single Payment Scheme provided for under Title III of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, the budgetary ceilings for each of the payments referred to in Articles 66 to 69 of that Regulation should be established for 2008 under the conditions laid down in Section 2 of Chapter 5 of Title III of the Regulation.

(4)

For Member States making use of the option provided for in Article 70 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, the budgetary ceilings applicable to the direct payments excluded from the Single Payment Scheme should be established for 2008.

(5)

For the sake of clarity, the 2008 budgetary ceilings for the Single Payment Scheme should be published after the revised ceilings included in Annex VIII to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 have been deducted from the ceilings established for payments referred to in Articles 66 to 70 of that Regulation.

(6)

For Member States implementing in 2008 the Single Area Payment Scheme provided for in Title IVa of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, the annual financial envelopes for 2008 should be established in accordance with Article 143b(3) of that Regulation.

(7)

For the sake of clarity, the maximum amount of funds available to Member States applying the Single Area Payment Scheme for granting separate sugar payments in 2008 under Article 143ba of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, established on the basis of their notifications, should be published.

(8)

For the sake of clarity, the maximum amount of funds available to Member States applying the Single Area Payment Scheme for granting separate fruit and vegetable payments in 2008 under Article 143bb of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, established on the basis of their notifications, should be published.

(9)

For Member States applying the Single Area Payment Scheme, the 2008 budgetary ceilings applicable to transitional payments for fruit and vegetables in accordance with Article 143bc(1) and (2) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, should therefore be established, on the basis of their notifications.

(10)

Regulations (EC) No 1782/2003 and (EC) No 247/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(11)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Direct Payments,