(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 (2) introduces the implementing rules for the single payment scheme as from 2005.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 (3), which lays down specific rules as regards the fruit and vegetable sector, defines the rules for the decoupled support and the integration of the support for fruit and vegetables 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, hops, sugar beet, cane, chicory and banana.

(3)

Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 should be further articulated as regards the definition of nurseries.

(4)

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 fruit and vegetable sector who made such investments or entered into such long-term lease-contracts before the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.

(5)

Member States which have acceded to the Community as from 1 May 2004 have established an identification system for agricultural parcels in compliance with Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003. When switching from the old to the new identification system, the features or certain parcels as existing in 2003 may not have been accurately reflected in the new identification system due to technical difficulties. In order to facilitate the implementation of the definition of ‘hectare eligible for set-aside entitlement’ as referred to in Article 54(2) of that Regulation in this context in all those Member States, they should be authorised to derogate, without prejudice to Article 33 of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004, from the reference to the date provided for the area aid applications for 2003 fixed in first subparagraph of that Article 54(2) provided that they ensure that the total agricultural area eligible to set-aside entitlements will not be increased. Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 should be amended accordingly. Given that some of those Member States have implemented the Single Payment Scheme as from 1 January 2007, this derogation should apply as from that date.

(6)

For farmers who have already been allocated, bought or received payment entitlements by the last date for applying for the establishment of payment entitlements for the year of the determination of the amounts and eligible hectares as referred to in point M of Annex VII to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, the value and number of their payment entitlements should be recalculated as a result of the reference amounts and hectares derived from the integration of the fruit and vegetable sector. Set-aside payment entitlements and entitlements subject to special conditions should not be taken into account in this calculation.

(7)

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 have to proceed with regard to the integration of the reference amount for fruit and vegetables into the replenishment of the national reserve.

(8)

Member States that apply the regional model established in Article 59(1) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, should be empowered to fix the number of payment entitlements per farmer resulting from the integration of fruit and vegetable hectares.

(9)

The date for the communication by Member States of information to the Commission regarding the options provided for in Article 51 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 should be established.

(10)

Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 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,

1.

Article 2 is amended as follows:

2.

Article 21 is amended as follows:

3.

in Article 32(4), the following subparagraph is added:

‘Without prejudice to Article 33 of this Regulation, in the case where the new Member States within the meaning of Article 2(g) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 have encountered technical difficulties to determine the limits of certain agricultural parcels as a consequence of the transition from the parcel identification system existing at the date referred to in Article 54(2) of that Regulation to the identification system for agricultural parcels referred to in Article 20 of that Regulation, they may derogate from the first subparagraph of paragraph 2 of Article 54 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 in order to fix the reference to the date provided for the area aid applications for 2003 at 30 June 2006. They shall take action to prevent any significant increase in the total area eligible to set-aside entitlements. However Bulgaria and Romania may fix that date at 30 June 2007.’;

4.

the following Chapter 6c is inserted before Chapter 7:

5.

the following Article 49b is inserted before Article 50: