28.11.2007   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 310/3

(1)

The common agricultural policy should be simplified as far as possible to facilitate access to the legislation and reduce the administrative burden on operators and the authorities.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003 provides for one single aid for all the eligible products referred to in Article 1 thereof, irrespective of their particular characteristics or their method of manufacture and, as a result, some of the requirements relating to the methods of manufacturing dehydrated dried fodder, the purpose of which was to make it easier to distinguish between sun-dried fodder and dehydrated fodder, are no longer necessary. This change should also open up the way for new commercial applications and facilitate the development of more efficient and environmentally-sound manufacturing methods. At the same time it should be made clear that the approval of processing undertakings remains subject to the condition that they are capable of producing dried fodder in accordance with the terms of Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003.

(3)

For the same reason, the obligations concerning the manufacture of fodder laid down in Article 8 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 382/2005 (3) are also no longer necessary; this should lead to a reduction in administrative and control costs.

(4)

To make on-the-spot checks on processing undertakings more efficient, it should be made clear that certain information must be made available to the competent authorities and that the control reports must make it possible to review the documents examined.

(5)

An additional parameter should be added in order to round out the information relating to the record of energy used in the production of dehydrated fodder.

(6)

Regulation (EC) No 382/2005 should be amended accordingly.

(7)

Given that the 2007/08 marketing year is already in progress, and in order to prevent operators in the sector from being treated differently depending on the time at which they submit their applications, this Regulation should not apply until the 2008/09 marketing year.

(8)

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

1.

Article 2 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

2.

Article 3 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 3

Products eligible for aid

For the purposes of this Regulation, the aid provided for in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003 shall be payable on dried fodder meeting, in addition to the requirements specified in Article 9 of that Regulation, the requirements for being placed on the market as feedingstuffs which leave, in the unaltered state or as a mixture, the premises of the processing undertaking, or, where they cannot be stored on the latter, a storage location outside the same which provides adequate guarantees of proper supervision of the stored fodder and which has been approved in advance by the competent authority.

The aid shall be payable solely on quantities of products obtained by drying fodder produced on parcels utilised for agriculture within the meaning of Article 51 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003.’

3.

In Article 5, point (a)(ii) is replaced by the following:

4.

In Article 6, point (d) is deleted.

5.

Article 8 is deleted.

6.

The first subparagraph of Article 10(3) is replaced by the following:

‘The determination of moisture and crude protein content provided for in Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003 shall be carried out by taking a sample for every 110 tonnes maximum of each lot of dried fodder leaving the processing undertaking or mixed on its premises in accordance with the method laid down in Commission Directives 76/371/EEC (5), 71/393/EEC (6) and 72/199/EEC (7).

7.

Article 11(1) is replaced by the following:

‘1.   The processing undertaking shall systematically weigh fodder for drying and/or grinding delivered for processing, in order to determine the exact quantities thereof.’

8.

Article 12(2) is replaced by the following:

‘2.   Processing undertakings shall keep separate stock records for all categories of dried fodder provided for in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003.’

9.

Article 26(1) is replaced by the following:

‘1.   The competent authorities shall inspect, at least once each marketing year, the stock records referred to in Article 12 of all processing undertakings, and in particular the link between the stock records and the accounts including bank statements and the corresponding invoices.’

10.

Article 28(1) is replaced by the following:

‘1.   Every on-the-spot check shall be the subject of a detailed control report which makes it possible to review the various aspects of the checks carried out and in particular the documents and registers examined.’

11.

In Annex I, line ‘e’ is replaced by the following: