(1)

On 15 June 2018 the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 on the apportionment of the tariff-rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Union.

(2)

Negotiations with Argentina have been concluded and the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Argentine Republic pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff-rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom`s withdrawal from the European Union (the ‘Agreement’) was initialled on 5 February 2021.

(3)

The Agreement should be signed,

(1)

On 15 June 2018, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations with the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 on the apportionment of the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Union.

(2)

Negotiations with the United States of America have been concluded and an Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (the ‘Agreement’) was initialled on 5 March 2021.

(3)

The Agreement should be signed,

(1)

Title II of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891 (2) lays down rules on the activities and operational programmes of producer organisations in the fruit and vegetables sector.

(2)

Member States may permit producer organisations to outsource certain activities. In some Member States, producer organisations are large companies, which are often holding multiple levels of subsidiaries. The provisions on outsourcing should therefore be reformulated to cover situations where the activities are outsourced to entities closely related to the producer.

(3)

In recent years, the production of mushrooms is not limited to the genus Agaricus variety anymore. Producer organisations specialised in the production of mushrooms produce other varieties of cultivated mushrooms such as Pleurotus, Shiitaké and Agrocybe, which reflect the market need and consumer expectations. Therefore, the scope of the provisions on the basis for calculation of the value of marketed production of mushrooms intended for processing should be extended in order to cover more cultivated mushroom varieties.

(4)

In accordance with the Commission legislative proposals for the future common agricultural policy (CAP), the fruit and vegetables aid scheme is to be integrated in the future CAP strategic plans of Member States. Pending the adoption of those proposals, Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) lays down certain transitional provisions in respect of the years 2021 and 2022. In particular, to ensure a smooth integration of that aid scheme into the future CAP, existing operational programmes in the fruit and vegetables sector that have not reached their maximum duration of five years may only be extended until 31 December 2022. In addition, new operational programmes in the fruit and vegetables sector may only be approved for a maximum duration of three years. Since the operational programmes in question must comply with the national strategy, Member States should be allowed to extend their national strategy until 31 December 2025.

(5)

The insurance indemnification received in certain cases of a reduction in production may be included in the calculation of the value of marketed production. It is appropriate to clarify when it has to be included, namely in the calculation of the value of marketed production of the 12-month reference period in which it is actually paid.

(6)

Expenditure under operational programmes eligible for aid is to be restricted to the actual costs incurred. However, for the purpose of the clearance of expenditure of actions and measures under operational programmes, the use by Member States of flat rates, scales of unit costs or lump sums should be aligned with the rules on rural development programmes.

(7)

Chapter III of Title II of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891 contains rules on crisis prevention and management measures, including, inter alia, market withdrawals. In its Special Report No 23/2019 ‘Farmers’ income stabilisation: comprehensive set of tools, but low uptake of instruments and overcompensation need to be tackled’ of 5 December 2019 (4), the European Court of Auditors raised concerns as regards some aspects of the fruit and vegetables withdrawal scheme, in particular for processed products made from withdrawn produce which could lead to an overcompensation. The European Court of Auditors recommends to set a maximum Union financial assistance for withdrawals for free distribution of processed fruit and vegetables with the view to avoiding any possible effect of overcompensation. For that reason, the provisions on support for market withdrawals for free distribution of processed fruit and vegetables should make clear that payments made to processors are to compensate only for processing costs and should exclude overcompensation.

(8)

Rules on support for market withdrawals relating to the application of the 5 % limit of the volume of marketed production should be clarified.

(9)

Taking into account that it is important to streamline, simplify and better coordinate existing instruments and complement them with new actions where necessary, the provisions on the implementation of harvest insurance actions should be aligned with the rules on rural development programmes.

(10)

With a view to increasing the attractiveness of the coaching measure as a crisis prevention and management measure, the eligibility conditions relating to the coaching recipient should be softened.

(11)

Producer organisations are obliged to evaluate the implementation of their operation programmes. As Article 24 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/892 (5) has been replaced, the reference to that Article should be deleted in the rules on the evaluation report in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891.

(12)

Some transitional provisions are obsolete and should therefore be removed.

(13)

Pursuant to Article 55 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891, Member States must notify the Commission of the weighted average recorded producer prices of fruit and vegetables corresponding to the types and varieties of products, sizes and presentations as specified in Annex VI to that Regulation. In order to accurately reflect the market situation, details on the ‘type/variety’, ‘presentation/size’ and ‘representative markets’ relating to tomatoes and apples as specified in that Annex should be updated. Furthermore, in order to align as much as possible the price notification system provided for in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891 with the provisions laid down in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1185 (6), the list of the products for which Member States must notify the Commission weekly of their prices should be reduced from 32 to 16 products. That limited list of 16 products would be identical to the list of products set out in Annex IV to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891. Finally, the United Kingdom should be removed from the list of ‘representative markets’.

(14)

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891 should therefore be amended accordingly,

(1)

Article 13 is amended as follows:

(2)

Article 22 is amended as follows:

(3)

in Article 27, the following paragraph 6 is added:

(4)

in Article 31, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

(5)

Article 45 is amended as follows:

(6)

in Article 51, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

(7)

in Article 51a, paragraph 3 is replaced by the following:

(8)

in Article 57(3), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘Evaluation shall take the form of a report in the last but one year of the implementation of the operational programme.’;

(9)

in Article 80, paragraphs 2 and 3 are deleted;

(10)

Annexes II, III and VI are amended in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation.