1.Producer organizations and their associations may choose not to put up for sale products listed in Article 1 (2) contributed by their members, both in quantities and for periods which they consider appropriate.
2.The destination of products withdrawn from the market under paragraph 1 must be fixed by the producer organization or association in such a way as not to disturb the normal disposal of the products in question and must respect the environment, particularly as regards water and landscape quality.
[F13. Where paragraph 1 is applied to any one of the products listed in Annex II which meet the relevant standards, producer organisations and their associations shall pay their producer members the Community withdrawal compensation indicated in Annex V, up to a limit:
for citrus fruit, of 5 %,
for apples and pears, of 8,5 %, and
for other products, of 10 %,
of the marketed quantity.
The limits set in the first subparagraph shall apply to the marketed quantity of each product, as defined in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46, of only the members of the producer organisation concerned, or of another organisation where Article 11(1)(c) applies.
4. The ceilings fixed in paragraph 3 shall apply from the 2002/03 marketing year. For the 2001/02 marketing year, the ceilings shall be 10 % for citrus fruit, melons and water melons, and 20 % for other products.
The second subparagraph of paragraph 3 shall apply to the ceilings set in this paragraph.
5. The percentages in paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be annual averages over a three-year period, with a 3 % annual margin of overrun.]
Textual Amendments
F1 Substituted by Council Regulation (EC) No 2699/2000 of 4 December 2000 amending Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 on the common organisation of the market in fruit and vegetables, Regulation (EC) No 2201/96 on the common organisation of the market in processed fruit and vegetables and Regulation (EC) No 2202/96 introducing a Community aid scheme for producers of certain citrus fruits.
In connection with the products listed in Annex II, producer organisations shall allow the benefits of Article 23 to growers who are not members of any of the collective structures provided for in this Regulation, if they so request. However, the Community withdrawal compensation shall be reduced by 10 %. In addition, the amount paid shall take account, on scrutiny of the evidence, of the overall withdrawal costs borne by the members. The compensation may not be granted on a volume greater than that share of the grower's marketed production corresponding to the percentages given in Article 23(3).]
Textual Amendments
F1 Substituted by Council Regulation (EC) No 2699/2000 of 4 December 2000 amending Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 on the common organisation of the market in fruit and vegetables, Regulation (EC) No 2201/96 on the common organisation of the market in processed fruit and vegetables and Regulation (EC) No 2202/96 introducing a Community aid scheme for producers of certain citrus fruits.
Producer organizations and their associations shall notify full details concerning the implementation of Articles 23 and 24, and in particular the measures taken to ensure environmentally sound practice in connection with withdrawals, to their competent national authorities, which shall forward the information to the Commission.
The information to be notified shall be determined, as necessary, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46.
Member States shall establish a national framework for drawing up the general conditions relating to the withdrawal methods which respect the environment. They shall submit their proposed framework to the Commission which may request modifications within three months if it finds that the proposal does not enable the aims set out in Article 130r of the Treaty and in the Community programme of policy and action in relation to the environment and sustainable development to be attained.
The Community withdrawal compensation shall be a single amount valid throughout the Community.]
Textual Amendments
F1 Substituted by Council Regulation (EC) No 2699/2000 of 4 December 2000 amending Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 on the common organisation of the market in fruit and vegetables, Regulation (EC) No 2201/96 on the common organisation of the market in processed fruit and vegetables and Regulation (EC) No 2202/96 introducing a Community aid scheme for producers of certain citrus fruits.
1.If the market in a product listed in Annex II is suffering or at risk of suffering from widespread structural imbalances giving or liable to give rise to too large a volume of the withdrawals referred to in Article 23, an intervention threshold shall be set before the beginning of the marketing year for that product in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46 and the consequences of any overrun, assessed for the product on the basis of withdrawals made during a marketing year or an equivalent period or of the average of the volume of intervention over several marketing years, shall be borne financially by the producers.
An overrun of the intervention threshold shall give rise to a reduction in the Community withdrawal compensation in the following marketing year. This reduction shall not be carried over to subsequent marketing years.
2.The following shall be determined in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46:
(a)the implications for each product of an overrun of the threshold;
(b)where necessary, the reduced Community withdrawal compensation and measures for the application of this Article.
3.This Article shall apply only during the first five marketing years following entry into force of this Regulation.
1.Member States shall notify the Commission for each marketing day during each of the relevant marketing years of the prices recorded on their representative producer markets for certain products of defined commercial characteristics such as variety or type, class, size and packaging.
2.A list of these markets and products and the frequency with which data is to be communicated shall be drawn up in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46.
Markets in Member States on which a substantial part of the national output of a given product is marketed throughout the marketing year or during one of the periods into which the year is divided shall be regarded as representative within the meaning of paragraph 1.
1.Member States shall pay the Community withdrawal compensation fixed in Article 26 to producer organizations or their associations which have carried out withdrawals under the terms of Articles 23 and 24 and are required to pay the compensation to their members or to non-member growers.
Payments shall be made in a manner to be determined in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46.
2.The Community withdrawal compensation shall be paid without prejudice to any financial implications resulting from overrun of an intervention threshold.
The compensation shall, in addition, be reduced by the net receipts earned by producer organizations and their associations from the products withdrawn from the market.
3.Where producer organizations and their associations are unable to direct products to one of the destinations referred to in Article 30 (1), the Community withdrawal compensation shall be granted only if the products have a destination in accordance with the instructions issued by the Member State under the other provisions of Article 30.
1.Products withdrawn from the market under Article 23 (1) which remain unsold shall be disposed of as follows:
(a)all products:
(a)free distribution to charitable organizations and foundations, approved to that effect by the Member States, for use in their activities to assist persons whose right to public assistance is recognized in national law, in particular because they lack the necessary means of subsistence,
free distribution to penal institutions and to children's holiday camps as well as to hospitals and old people's homes designated by the Member States, which shall take all necessary steps to ensure that the quantities thus distributed are additional to the quantities normally bought in by such establishments,
free distribution outside the Community, through charitable organizations approved to that effect by the Member States, to the populations of third countries in need,
and, secondarily,
(a)use for non-food purposes,
use in animal feed, either fresh or after processing by the feedingstuffs industry;
(b)fruit: free distribution to school children, other than as part of the meals served in school canteens, and to pupils in schools which do not have canteens providing meals,
(c)apples, pears, peaches and nectarines: processing into alcohol of a strength of more than 80 % volume by direct distillation of the product,
(d)all products: disposal of certain classes of product to the processing industry on condition that there is no resulting distortion of competition for the industries concerned within the Community or for imported products. The implementation of this provision shall be decided in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46.
2.In cases where none of the destinations referred to in paragraph 1 is possible, products withdrawn may be destined for composting or for biodegradation processes authorized by the Member State concerned.
3.The free distribution provided for in the first, second and third indents of point (a) of paragraph 1 and point (b) of paragraph 1 shall be organized by the producer organizations concerned, under the supervision of the Member States.
However, with regard to the free distribution of fruit to school children, the Commission may take the initiative of and responsibility for implementing local pilot projects within the framework of research and promotion measures.
4.Member States shall help to establish contacts between producer organizations and charitable organizations and other bodies which may be interested in using products withdrawn from the market within their territory, with a view to one of the forms of free distribution referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1.
5.The disposal of products to the feedingstuffs industry shall be carried out by the most appropriate procedure by an agency designated by the Member State concerned.
The distillation referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1 shall be carried out by distilleries either on their own account or on behalf of a body designated by the Member State concerned. In both cases this body shall carry out the operations in question using the most appropriate procedure.
[F26. The Community shall defray, on terms and conditions to be determined in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46, transport, sorting and packaging costs in connection with free distribution as provided for in paragraph 1.]
7.Detailed rules for the application of this Article, and in particular those relating to free distribution and the disposal of products withdrawn, and those designed to avoid disruption of the alcohol market as a result of the distillation of products withdrawn, shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 46.