(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 of 21 April 2004 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of the single payment scheme provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers (2) introduces the implementing rules for the single payment scheme as from 2005.

(2)

Experience of the administrative and operational implementation of that scheme at national level has shown that in certain respects further detailed rules are needed and in other respects the existing rules need to be clarified and adapted.

(3)

Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 as amended by Regulation (EC) No 319/2006 defines the rules for the de-coupled support and the integration of the support for sugar beet, cane and chicory into the single payment scheme. The related detailed rules should therefore be adopted. Those detailed rules should follow the same lines as those already laid down in Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 with regard to olive oil, tobacco, cotton and hops.

(4)

The application of Article 42 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 to all sectors included in the single payment scheme after the first year of application may lead to the situation that the amounts that remain in the national reserve after allocation of reference amounts from that national reserve in the cases provided for in that Article are not needed anymore to cover any further cases. In that case the Member States should be authorised to increase proportionally the unit value of all payment entitlements.

(5)

Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 provides for the detailed rules for farmers who made investments in production capacity or who leased parcels on a long-term basis. Those provisions need to be adapted in order to take into account the special situation of farmers in the sugar sector who made such investments or entered into such long-term lease-contracts before the entry into force of Council Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 of 20 February 2006 on the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector (3).

(6)

Experience shows that there is a need for clarification of the dates at which a farmer applying for aid under the single payment scheme has to hold the payment entitlements.

(7)

The rules in case of transfers of payment entitlements should be clarified in order to enable a transfer to take place on the date foreseen in the communication of the transfer to the competent authority, unless the competent authority objects to the transfer and notifies the transferor thereof within the time period established by the Member State.

(8)

Article 48c of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 needs to be adapted in respect of Member States which already started to apply the single payment scheme in 2005.

(9)

The integration of the sugar reference amounts into the single payment scheme was decided by Council Regulation (EC) No 319/2006 of 20 February 2006 amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers. Member States therefore only have very short time-limits to take the necessary steps to comply with that integration. Measures should be taken to ensure a smooth transition from the old sugar-related schemes to the integration into the single payment scheme. In particular, it should be ensured that farmers may make use of their rights within reasonable time-limits. Where that possibility is at jeopardy, Member States should have to provide for a prolongation of the application time-limits fixed in Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003.

(10)

In order to avoid that the sugar sector is submitted to a second linear percentage reduction of the reference amounts in case of overshoot of the national ceilings referred to in Annex VIII to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, it is appropriate to clarify the application of Article 41(2) of that Regulation.

(11)

In accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, the national reserve has to be replenished by a linear reduction of all the reference amounts. Rules need to be established to clarify how Member States who already applied the single payment scheme in 2005 have to proceed with regard to the integration of the reference amount for sugar beet, cane and chicory into the replenishment of the national reserve.

(12)

The specific rules provided for in Article 48d of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 need to be extended to include sugar beet, cane and chicory support.

(13)

A further time-limit concerning the dates provided for in Article 49a of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004, by which Member States have to communicate certain information to the Commission, needs to be granted with regard to the integration of sugar beet, cane and chicory support.

(14)

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 fixes the date from which the growing of secondary crops may be temporarily allowed in regions where cereals are usually harvested sooner for climatic reasons as referred to in Article 51(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003. At the request of Greece, that date should be fixed for that Member State.

(15)

Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 fixed the average number of hectares referred to in Article 60(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 on the basis of the data communicated to the Commission by the Member States concerned. Finland has communicated the relevant data. It is therefore appropriate to fix also the number of hectares for that Member State.

(16)

Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(17)

Due to the fact that the transfer of entitlements may start as from 1 January 2006, it is appropriate to provide that this Regulation applies retroactively from that date.

(18)

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

1.

in Article 4, the following paragraph is added:

2.

Article 21 is amended as follows:

3.

in Article 24, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

4.

in Article 25, paragraph 3 is replaced by the following:

5.

the title of Chapter 6b is replaced by the following:

‘CHAPTER 6b

INTEGRATION OF TOBACCO, OLIVE OIL, COTTON, HOPS PAYMENTS AND SUGAR BEET, CANE AND CHICORY SUPPORT IN THE SINGLE PAYMENT SCHEME’;

6.

Article 48c is amended as follows:

7.

Article 48d is amended as follows:

8.

Article 48e is amended as follows:

9.

Article 49a is amended as follows:

10.

Annexes I and II are replaced by the text in the Annex to this Regulation.