(1)

Article 4 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 (2) lays down detailed rules on the allocation of Union aid per Member State setting up a School Fruit Scheme. In particular, it provides for indicative allocation amounts for each Member State calculated on the basis of the number of six- to ten-year-old children. Bearing in mind the levels of execution of the programme recorded during the first three years and in order to ensure an appropriate use of Union funds, it is necessary to provide for a mechanism linked to the performance of Member States which would limit the amount of the aid requested above the amount of their indicative allocation.

(2)

Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 provides for the monitoring of the implementation of the Member States’ School Fruit Scheme on an annual basis. In order to clarify the obligations of Member States with regard to the evaluation of their School Fruit Scheme, it is necessary to specify that national evaluations have to assess also the impact of the Scheme on children’s eating habits.

(3)

The Commission has developed an information system that allows managing documents and procedures electronically in its own internal working procedures and in its relations with the authorities involved in the common agricultural policy. It is considered that several notification obligations provided for in Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 can be fulfilled via that system in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 792/2009 of 31 August 2009 laying down detailed rules for the Member States’ notification to the Commission of information and documents in implementation of the common organisation of the markets, the direct payments’ regime, the promotion of agricultural products and the regimes applicable to the outermost regions and the smaller Aegean islands (3).

(4)

Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 sets the amounts of indicative allocations of Union aid per Member State. That Annex needs to be adapted in view of the accession of Croatia to the European Union.

(5)

Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(6)

To take into account the accession of Croatia, specific rules should be laid down as regards the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 in the school year 2013/14. In particular, the date for the submission of the national strategy and the aid application by Croatia needs to be fixed and a specific procedure should be established to take into account the timing of the Commission Decision fixing the definitive allocation of Union aid to the Member States and the foreseen date of the accession of Croatia. Exceptionally, due to the timing constraints derived from the need to set the definitive allocation of Union aid for all Member States well before the beginning of the school year, the Commission, when setting the definitive allocations as referred to in Article 4(4) of Regulation (EC) No 288/2009 should have regard to any advance voluntary notification by Croatia of its strategy and aid application where such information is received by 31 January.

(7)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,

(1)

Article 4 is amended as follows:

(2)

in Article 10(1), point (c) is replaced by the following:

(3)

in Article 12(2), the first sentence is replaced by the following:

‘Member States shall evaluate the implementation of their School Fruit Scheme and assess its effectiveness, including its impact on children’s eating habits.’;

(4)

Article 15 is replaced by the following:

(5)

Annex II is replaced by the text set out in the Annex to this Regulation;

(6)

Annex IIa is deleted.