Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2200/97 of 30 October 1997 on the improvement of the Community production of apples, pears, peaches and nectarines^f1, and in particular Article 6 thereof,

Whereas, in order to meet the objectives of Regulation (EC) No 2200/97, the conditions should be laid down for granting the premium for the grubbing up of apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and nectarine trees provided for in that Regulation, hereinafter called ‘the grubbing up premium’; whereas, to that end, the areas and the fruit trees which may be grubbed up and the level of the premium should be determined;

Whereas, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the scheme and to permit an assessment of the results of its implementation, it is essential that the particulars which are to appear in the application for the premium should be specified and that the accuracy of such information should be checked; whereas the undertakings to be given by the applicant with regard to the planting of apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and nectarine trees on his holding after grubbing up should be laid down; whereas the information to be provided by the Member States to the Commission after grubbing up should be specified; whereas that information should be broken down by variety and area of production as set out in Annexes II and III to Commission Decision 77/144/EEC of 22 December 1976 laying down the standard code and rules governing the transcription into a machine-readable form of the data of the surveys of plantations of certain species of fruit trees, and laying down the boundaries of the production areas for these surveys^f2, as last amended by Decision 96/689/EC^f3;

Whereas, in accordance with Article 1 (2) of Regulation (EC) No 2200/97, the conditions under which the Commission may alter the allocation by Member State mentioned in that Article and the conditions under which the Member States determine the areas which may receive the grubbing up premium should be established;

Whereas, in order to avert the risk of the grubbed up trees being replanted, provision should be made for them to be rendered unsuitable for such use;

Whereas, before the premium is paid, it should be established that grubbing up has actually taken place;

Whereas all the provisions necessary to ensure compliance with the undertakings given by the recipient of the grubbing-up premium and the penalties to be imposed in the event of non-compliance should be laid down;

Whereas the operative event for the conversion rate is set at 1 January of the year to which the decision to pay the aid relates, in accordance with Article 11 (2) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1068/93^f4, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1482/96^f5;

Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Fruit and Vegetables,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: