THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)(1), and in particular Article 91 thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005, which establishes the legal framework for the EAFRD support for rural development throughout the Community, has been amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 74/2009 of 19 January 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)(2). Consequently, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006(3) should be complemented by additional detailed implementing rules.
(2) The expiry of the dairy quota regime under Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common market organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation)(4) requires specific efforts from dairy farmers. Therefore, it is appropriate to withdraw, with effect from the beginning of the programming period, the limitation of investment support for dairy farms to stay within the limits of the production quotas allocated to the individual farm.
(3) Regulation (EC) No 74/2009 introduced the requirement of revision of the national strategy plans. The minimum content of this revision should be defined.
(4) Because of the importance of the priorities laid down in Article 16a of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005, the revisions of the rural development programmes following the first implementation of that Article should be considered as revisions under Article 19(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 and be made subject to a Commission decision.
(5) Regulation (EC) No 74/2009 has identified a list of potential effects which the operations linked to the priorities referred to in Article 16a of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 are aimed to achieve. This list not being exhaustive, additional potential effects can be proposed by Member States, which the abovementioned operations are aimed to achieve. However, in order to ensure consistency with the potential effects already identified and with the general purpose of strengthening the operations related to the new challenges, the option for Member States to propose such additional potential effects should be subject to review by the Commission and to the opinion of the Rural Development Committee. Therefore, modifications introducing a new potential effect should be subject to a Commission decision.
(6) Given the high number of cases in which revisions concern an exception of lower importance from demarcation principles between common market organisations and rural development and in order to limit the administrative burden, the Commission should no longer adopt decisions on revisions concerning changes relating to the exception referred to in Article 5(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005. Accordingly, such a category of revision should be deleted from the list of Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006.
(7) Content and criteria of the business plans concerning support for holdings undergoing restructuring due to a reform of a common market organisation should be specified.
(8) Following the abolition of the ‘set-aside measure’ pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 of 19 January 2009 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 247/2006, (EC) No 378/2007 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003(5), provisions referring to this measure have to be adapted.
(9) In order to ease the realisation of investment projects in the context of the ongoing economic and financial crisis, the maximum ceiling for advance payments should be raised in 2009 and 2010.
(10) It is appropriate to adapt the provisions on State aid for certain co-financed measures by the EAFRD and for additional national financing in order to clarify their scope of application and to take into account the new measure on holdings undergoing restructuring due to a reform of a common market organisation introduced by Regulation (EC) No 74/2009.
(11) There is a need to define the term ‘substantial changes’ in Article 78(f) of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005.
(12) In order to allow monitoring of the actions related to the priorities laid down in Article 16a of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005, output indicators, and related targets, making part of the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework referred to in Article 80 of that Regulation should be specified by type of operations.
(13) Member States have to provide in their revised programmes information on the types of operations related to the priorities mentioned in Article 16a of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 indicating which of these operations are based on new measures, i.e. measures which have not been approved with the rural development programme yet. Additionally, the indicative EAFRD contribution for 2010-2013 has to be shown. For this purpose the Annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006 should be amended.
(14) In order to be consistent with the date of application of Regulation (EC) No 74/2009, to which the provisions of this Regulation are complementary, this Regulation should apply as of 1 January 2009. Such retroactive application should not infringe the principle of legal certainty of the beneficiaries concerned.
(15) Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(16) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Rural Development Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: