(1)

In accordance with Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EU) No 807/2010 of 14 September 2010 laying down detailed rules for the supply of food from intervention stocks for the benefit of the most deprived persons in the Union (3), the Commission has to adopt a distribution plan to be financed from resources available in the 2011 budget year. That plan has to lay down, in particular, for each of the Member States applying the measure, the maximum financial resources available to carry out its part of the plan, and the quantity of each type of product to be withdrawn from the stocks held by the intervention agencies.

(2)

The Member States involved in the distribution plan for the 2011 budget year have supplied the Commission with the information required in accordance with Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010.

(3)

For the purposes of resource allocation, account must be taken of experience and of the degree to which the Member States used the resources allocated to them in previous years.

(4)

Point (a), (iii) of Article 2(3) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010 provides for the allocation of resources for the purchase on the market of products temporarily unavailable in intervention stocks. Given that the stocks of butter currently held by the intervention agencies are not sufficient to cover the allocations, resource allocations should be fixed to enable the purchase on the market as required to implement the distribution plan for the 2011 budget year.

(5)

Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010 provides that, where no rice is available in intervention stocks, the Commission may authorise the removal of cereals from the intervention stocks as payment for the supply of rice or rice products mobilised on the market. Accordingly, given that there are currently no intervention stocks of rice, the removal of cereals from intervention stocks as payment for mobilising rice products in the market should be authorised.

(6)

Article 8(1) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010 provides for the transfer between Member States of products unavailable in the intervention stocks of the Member State in which such products are required to implement the annual distribution plan. Accordingly, the intra-EU transfers necessary to implement that plan for 2011 should be authorised, subject to the conditions laid down in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010.

(7)

Furthermore, in view of the market situation as regards cereals and in order to enable the Commission to manage cereal intervention stocks in an efficient and timely manner, it is appropriate, in case of intra-EU transfers, that supplier Member States swiftly inform the Commission about the quantities of each type of cereal kept in intervention in their territory that they will reserve for the purpose of implementing the 2011 distribution plan.

(8)

Taking into account the complexity of the implementation of the 2011 distribution plan requiring a high volume of intra-EU transfers, it is appropriate to increase the 5 % margin provided in Article 3(4) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010.

(9)

In order to ensure that products from the intervention stocks do not enter the market at an inappropriate moment during the year, the time periods provided for in the first, second and third subparagraphs of Article 3(2) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010 during which products may be withdrawn from the intervention stocks should be shortened.

(10)

Taking into account the high volume of products to be withdrawn from intervention stocks and the high volume of intra-EU transfers, it is appropriate to derogate from the sixty-day period allowed for the removal of the products from intervention stocks in accordance with the fifth subparagraph of Article 3(2) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010.

(11)

Due to the current market situation in the cereals sector, which is marked by high market price levels, it is appropriate, in order to secure the Union’s financial interests, to increase the security, which is to be lodged by the contractor undertaking the supply operation of cereals as provided for in Articles 4(3) and 8(4) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010.

(12)

To implement the annual distribution plan, the operative event within the meaning of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2799/98 should be the date on which the financial year for administration of stocks in public storage starts.

(13)

In accordance with Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) No 807/2010, the Commission has consulted the major organisations familiar with the problems of the most deprived persons in the EU when drawing up the annual distribution plan.

(14)

The Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets has not delivered an opinion within the time limit set by its Chair,