Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 33 U.K. Operational programmes

1. Operational programmes in the fruit and vegetables sector shall have a minimum duration of three years and a maximum duration of five years. They shall have at least two of the objectives referred to in point (c) of Article 152(1) or two of the following objectives:

(a) planning of production, including production and consumption forecasting and follow-up;

(b) improvement of product quality, whether in a fresh or processed form;

(c) boosting products' commercial value;

(d) promotion of the products, whether in a fresh or processed form;

(e) environmental measures, particularly those relating to water, and methods of production respecting the environment, including organic farming;

(f) crisis prevention and management.

Operational programmes shall be submitted to the Member States for their approval.

2. Associations of producer organisations may also present an entire or partial operational programme composed of measures identified, but not carried out, by member organisations under their operational programmes. The operational programmes of associations of producer organisations shall be subject to the same rules as operational programmes of producer organisations and shall be considered with the operational programmes of member organisations.

To that end, the Member States shall ensure that:

(a) measures under operational programmes of an association of producer organisations are entirely financed by contributions of those member organisations of that association and that such funding is collected from the operational funds of those member organisations;

(b) the measures and their corresponding financial share are identified in the operational programme of each member organisation;

(c) there is no duplication of funding.

3. Crisis prevention and management referred to in point (f) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 shall be related to avoiding and dealing with crises on the fruit and vegetable markets and shall cover in this context:

(a) investments making the management of the volumes placed on the market more efficient;

(b) training measures and exchanges of best practices;

(c) promotion and communication, whether for prevention or during a crisis period;

(d) support for the administrative costs of setting up mutual funds;

(e) replanting of orchards where that is necessary following mandatory grubbing up for health or phytosanitary reasons on the instruction of the Member State competent authority;

(f) market withdrawal;

(g) green harvesting or non-harvesting of fruit and vegetables;

(h) harvest insurance.

Support for harvest insurance shall contribute to safeguarding producers' incomes where there are losses as a consequence of natural disasters, adverse climatic events, diseases or pest infestations.

Insurance contracts shall require that beneficiaries undertake necessary risk prevention measures.

Crisis prevention and management measures, including any repayment of capital and interest as referred to in the fifth subparagraph, shall not comprise more than one third of the expenditure under the operational programme.

Producer organisations may take out loans on commercial terms for financing crisis prevention and management measures. In that case, the repayment of the capital and interest on those loans may form part of the operational programme and so may be eligible for Union financial assistance under Article 34. Any specific action under crisis prevention and management may be financed by such loans or directly, or both.

4. For the purposes of this Section:

(a) "green harvesting" means the total harvesting on a given area of unripe non-marketable products which have not been damaged prior to the green harvesting, whether due to climatic reasons, disease or otherwise;

(b) "non-harvesting" means the termination of the current production cycle on the area concerned where the product is well developed and is of sound, fair and marketable quality. Destruction of products due to a climatic event or disease is not considered as non-harvesting.

5. Member States shall ensure that:

(a) operational programmes include two or more environmental actions; or

(b) at least 10 % of the expenditure under operational programmes covers environmental actions.

Environmental actions shall respect the requirements for agri-environment-climate payments laid down in Article 28(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013.

Where at least 80 % of the producer members of a producer organisation are subject to one or more identical agri-environment-climate commitments provided for in Article 28(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013, then each one of those commitments shall count as an environmental action as referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph.

Support for the environmental actions referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall cover additional costs and income foregone resulting from the action.

6. Member States shall ensure that investments which increase environmental pressure shall only be permitted in situations where effective safeguards to protect the environment from these pressures are in place.