Article 3

The quantity eligible for the allowance shall be determined annually for each marketing year and for each producer or producers' organization at its request, provisionally by the Member State where the producer or producers' organization is established, on the basis of the average annual quantity which the producer or the producers' organization sold to the Community processing industry for the purposes of processing operations eligible pursuant to this Regulation, during the reference period 1982 to 1984.

Member States shall notify the Commission, one month before the beginning of each marketing year, of the overall quantity eligible for the allowance as provisionally determined for the coming marketing year, broken down by category of product and processing operation. Furthermore, the Member States concerned shall forthwith inform the Commission of any change in this quantity.

Where the sum of the quantities provisionally determined by each of the Member States exceeds the ceiling provided for in the second indent of Article 3 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3117/85, the Comission, after consulting the Member States concerned, shall decide the overall quantities eligible for the allowance or each Member State, according to the criteria set out in paragraph 1.

The Commission shall take a decision on the quantities concerned within a period of 30 days following notification thereof, failing which the quantities determined shall be considered to have been accepted.

Final allocation of the quantities referred to in paragraph 1 shall take place after the Commission has taken a decision on the overall quantity determined by each Member State, in accordance with paragraph 2.