Article 152U.K.Transitional provisions
1.Notwithstanding Article 2 of this Regulation, solely for the purposes of the application of Article 55(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007, the definitions of marketing years for the products listed in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2201/96, existing before the entry into force of this Regulation shall apply.
2.The rules for the approval of all operational programmes submitted in 2007 shall be those applicable immediately prior to the date of application of this Regulation.
Operational programmes to which benefit from point (a) of Article 55(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 may continue to run until their end provided they comply with the rules applicable prior to the date of application of this Regulation.
By way of derogation from Articles 66 and 67 of this Regulation, Member States may adopt any necessary provisions to permit producer organisations to amend their operational programmes as soon as possible after the entry into force of this Regulation in order to apply points (b) and (c) of Article 55(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.
[F1Member States may provide that the expenditure on one or more of the crisis prevention and management measures on market withdrawal, promotion and communication and training which are carried out in 2008 by a producer organisation shall be eligible even if the operational programme has not yet been amended to cover the measures concerned. In order for such expenditure to be eligible:
(a) the Member State shall ensure that its national strategy adopted in 2008 in accordance with this Regulation covers the measures concerned,
(b) in 2008 the operational programme shall be amended in accordance with this Regulation to cover the measures concerned before an application is made for payment of the related aid; and
(c) the measures and any checks on those measures shall comply with this Regulation.
Member States may provide that an amendment to a measure in an existing operational programme made under Article 55(3)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 covers the expenditure on operations which are carried out in 2008 even before that amendment is made, provided that the requirements of points (a), (b) and (c) of the fourth subparagraph are respected.]
3.For the purposes of Article 55(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007, the rules on the minimum characteristics of the raw material supplied for processing and minimum quality requirements for finished products which shall remain applicable in respect of the raw materials harvested in the territory of Member States which make use of the transitional arrangement under Article 68b or Article 143bc of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 shall be, in addition to any relevant marketing standards as referred to in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007, those contained in the Commission Regulations listed in Annex XVIII.
[F24. By way of derogation from Article 47(2) of this Regulation, producers groups which are implementing recognition plans to which Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 applies and which are not broken into semestrial periods may submit applications for aid covering semestrial periods. Such applications may cover only semestrial periods corresponding to the yearly segments which started before 2008.
5. By way of derogation from Article 96, in respect of operational programmes implemented in 2007, additional financial assistance to operational funds shall be financed by EAGF at a level of 50 % of the financial assistance granted to the producer organisation.
6. Recognition plans accepted under Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 which continue to benefit from acceptance pursuant to Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 for producer groups not in Member States which acceded to the Community on 1 May 2004 or after that date and not in the outermost regions of the Community as referred to in Article 299(2) of the Treaty or in the smaller Aegean islands as referred to in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006 shall be financed at the rates set out in Article 7(5)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.
Recognition plans accepted under Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 which benefitted from Article 14(7) of that Regulation and continue to benefit from acceptance pursuant to Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 shall be financed at the rates set out in Article 7(5)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.
7. Payments of Community withdrawal compensation and related checks which concern 2007 withdrawals but which were not yet made by 31 December 2007 may nevertheless be made after that date in accordance with Title IV of Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 as it existed at that date.
8. Where, in respect of an application for aid submitted for operational programmes implemented in 2007 or before, and in relation to acts or omissions which occurred in that period, a sanction would apply under Section 3 of Chapter V of Title III but a less severe sanction or no sanction would have applied under the legislation in force at the time, then that less severe sanction, or as the case may be, no sanction, shall apply.]