(1)

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014 (2) lays down detailed rules applicable to public intervention expenditure under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF). The provisions of that Regulation need to be adapted in order to take into account that public intervention is used only occasionally.

(2)

Part I of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014 defines the applicable interest rates for the financing of public intervention expenditure under the EAGF.

(3)

In order to determine those interest rates, the Member States are to notify to the Commission the average interest rate they actually bore during a reference period. If a Member State did not bear any interest costs, because it did not have agricultural products in public storage, the Commission is to fix the reference interest rate based on average reference interest rates. For Member States that use the euro, the reference rate is the euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR). For Member States whose currency is not the euro, the reference rate is the Interbank Offered Rate (IBOR).

(4)

Given the decreasing number of transactions underlying the EURIBOR, the euro short-term rate (€STR) should be provided as a fall-back rate for cases where the EURIBOR is not available. For Member States whose currency is not the euro, the possibility to use the fall-back rate replacing the national IBOR should also be provided.

(5)

Currently, pursuant to the rules set out in Part I of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014, the Commission is to adopt, for every accounting year, an implementing regulation fixing the interest rate, even if there is no change to the interest rate and even if there are no products in public storage. For reasons of simplification and resource efficiency, it is appropriate to provide that the Commission implementing regulation fixing the interest rate remains in force until its repeal. The Commission should thus update the interest rate only if a public storage intervention takes place or an intervention buying-in is expected to take place.

(6)

Part I, point 4, of Annex III to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014 lays down the rules for establishing the applicable standard amounts for the Union when fewer than four Member States place a given product in public storage. However, it may occur that more than four Member States place a given product in public storage but fewer than four Member States notify their recorded costs. To avoid legal uncertainty in establishing the applicable standard amounts, a provision should be added for cases where fewer than four Member States notify their recorded costs.

(7)

Part II, point 3, of Annex III to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014 provides that the Commission may roll over the standard amounts fixed previously for a product where there was no public storage, or there will be no public storage, for the current accounting year. For reasons of simplification and resource efficiency, the applicable standard amounts should not be fixed routinely every year. Instead, the Commission implementing decision fixing those standard amounts should remain applicable until it is repealed.

(8)

Annexes I and III to Delegated Regulation (EU) No 906/2014 should therefore be amended accordingly,

(1)

Annex I, Part I is amended as follows:

(2)

Annex III is amended as follows: