4. AGRICULTURE

Treaty establishing the European Community, Part Three, Title II, Agriculture

1. Public stocks held at the date of accession by the new Member States and resulting from their market-support policy shall be taken over by the Community at the value resulting from the application of Article 8 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1883/78 laying down general rules for the financing of interventions by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guarantee Section [2]. The said stocks shall be taken over only on condition that public intervention for the products in question is provided for in the Community rules and that the stocks meet the Community intervention requirements.

2. Any stock of product, private as well as public, in free circulation at the date of accession within the territory of the new Member States exceeding the quantity which could be regarded as constituting a normal carryover of stock must be eliminated at the expense of the new Member States.

The concept of normal carryover stock shall be defined for each product on the basis of criteria and objectives specific to each common market organisation.

3. The stocks referred to in paragraph 1 shall be deducted from the quantity exceeding the normal carryover of stocks.

4. The Commission shall implement and apply the arrangements outlined above in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 13 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy [3] or, as appropriate, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 42(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/2001 on the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector [4], or in the corresponding Articles of the other Regulations on the common organisation of agricultural markets or the relevant committee procedure as determined in the applicable legislation.

Treaty establishing the European Community, Part Three, Title VI, Chapter 1, Rules on Competition

Without prejudice to the procedures concerning existing aid provided for in Article 88 of the EC Treaty, aid schemes and individual aid granted to activities linked to the production, processing or marketing of products listed in Annex I to the EC Treaty, with the exception of fisheries products and products derived therefrom, put into effect in a new Member State before the date of accession and still applicable after that date, shall be regarded as existing aid within the meaning of Article 88(1) of the EC Treaty subject to the following conditions:

- the aid measures shall be communicated to the Commission within four months of the date of accession. This communication shall include information on the legal basis for each measure. Existing aid measures and plans to grant or alter aids communicated to the Commission prior to the date of accession shall be deemed to have been communicated on the date of accession. The Commission shall publish a list of such aids.

These aid measures shall be regarded as "existing" aid within the meaning of Article 88(1) of the EC Treaty until the end of third year from the date of accession.

The new Member States shall, where necessary, amend these aid measures in order to comply with the guidelines applied by the Commission by the end of the third year from the date of accession at the latest. After that date, any aid found to be incompatible with those guidelines shall be considered as new aid.

[2] OJ L 216, 5.8.1978, p. 1.

[3] OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 103.

[4] OJ L 178, 30.6.2001, p. 1.

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