TITLE ICOMMON RULES AND CONDITIONS RELATED TO PUBLIC INTERVENTION

CHAPTER IIAccess to public intervention

Article 4Eligibility of operators

1

Any operator established and registered for VAT purposes in the Community can submit an offer or a tender under a public intervention scheme.

However, for the purposes of buying-in, for cereals and rice, registration in a farm register is sufficient if the operator has no VAT registration.

2

In the case of beef for buying-in only the following operators may submit tenders:

a

slaughterhouses for bovine animals registered or approved in accordance with Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council13, whatever their legal status; and

b

livestock or meat traders who have slaughtering undertaken therein on their own account.

3

For butter and skimmed milk powder, approved undertakings as referred to in Article 10(1)(e) and (f) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 are eligible only if they fulfil the conditions referred to in Part III of Annex IV and Part III of Annex V.

Article 5Procedure for submitting offers or tenders

1

Offers or tenders submitted in accordance with this Regulation shall use the method made available to the operators by the Member State concerned.

2

The intervention agencies may require that electronic offers or tenders be accompanied by an advance electronic signature within the meaning of Article 2(2) of Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council14 or by an electronic signature offering equivalent assurances with regard to the functionalities attributed to a signature, by applying the same rules and conditions as those applied by the Commission in accordance with its provisions on electronic and digitised documents, set out by Decision 2004/563/EC, Euratom15, and in its implementing rules.