‘producer’ means a farmer as referred to in Article 3(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007;

‘subsidiary’ means a company in which one or more producer organisations or associations thereof have taken shares and which contributes to the objectives of the producer organisation or the association of producer organisations;

‘transnational producer organisation’ means any organisation where at least one of the producers’ holdings is located in a Member State other than where the organisation has its head office;

‘transnational association of producer organisations’ means any association of producer organisations in which at least one of the associated organisations is located in a Member State other than where the association has its head office;

‘Convergence Objective’ means the objective of the action for the least developed Member States and regions according to the Community legislation governing the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund for the period from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013;

‘measure’ means one of the following:

1. (i)

   actions aimed at planning of production, including acquisition of fixed assets;

2. (ii)

   actions aimed at improving or maintaining product quality, including acquisition of fixed assets;

3. (iii)

   actions aimed at improving marketing, including acquisition of fixed assets, as well as promotion and communication activities, other than promotion and communication activities falling under point (vi);

4. (iv)

   research and experimental production, including acquisition of fixed assets;

5. (v)

   training actions, other than training falling under point (vi), and actions aimed at promoting access to advisory services;

6. (vi)

   any of the six crisis prevention and management instruments listed in points (a) to (f) of the first subparagraph of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007;

7. (vii)

   environmental actions as referred to in Article 9(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007, including acquisition of fixed assets;

8. (viii)

   other actions, including acquisition of fixed assets other than those falling under points (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and (vii) which fulfil one or more of the objectives referred to in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.

‘action’ means a specific activity or instrument aimed at achieving a particular operational objective contributing to one or more of the objectives referred to in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007;

‘by product’ means a product which results from preparation and/or processing of a fruit or vegetable product which has a positive economic value but is not the main intended result;

‘first-stage processing’ means processing of a fruit or vegetable product into another product listed in Annex I to the EC Treaty. Cleaning, cutting, trimming, drying and packaging of fresh products with a view to marketing shall not be considered as first-stage processing;

‘interbranch basis’ as referred to in Article 10(3)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007, means one or more of the activities listed in Article 20(c) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 approved by the Member State and managed jointly by a producer organisation or an association of producer organisations and at least one other actor in the food processing and/or distribution chain;

‘baseline indicator’ means any indicator reflecting a state or trend existing at the start of a programming period which may provide information useful:

1. (i)

   in the analysis of the initial situation, in order to establish a national strategy for sustainable operational programmes or an operational programme;

2. (ii)

   as a reference against which the results and impact of a national strategy or an operational programme may be assessed; and/or

3. (iii)

   in interpreting the results and impact of a national strategy or an operational programme.