Article 3 Financial assistance for withdrawals to producer organisations

Union financial assistance shall be granted for market withdrawals for free distribution as referred to in Article 34(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and for destinations other than free distribution carried out in relation to the products referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation and during the period referred to in Article 1(3) of this Regulation.

The 5 % ceiling referred to in Article 34(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and in Article 79(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 543/2011 shall not apply in respect of the products referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation when those products are withdrawn during the period referred to in Article 1(3) of this Regulation.

For products referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation, but not listed in Annex XI to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 543/2011, the maximum amounts of support shall be those set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

For tomatoes the maximum amount shall be the amount set out in Annex XI to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 543/2011 for the period 1 November to 31 May.

By way of derogation from Article 34(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, the Union financial assistance for market withdrawals for destinations other than free distribution shall be 75 % of the maximum amounts of the support for other destinations referred to in Annex XI to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 543/2011 and in Annex I to this Regulation.

The Union financial assistance referred to in paragraph 1 shall be available to producer organisations even if they do not provide for such market withdrawal operations in their operational programmes. Article 32(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 shall not apply in relation to Union financial assistance under this Article.

The Union financial assistance referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be taken into account for the purpose of calculating the ceilings referred to in Article 34(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.

The ceiling of one third of expenditure referred to in the fourth subparagraph of Article 33(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and the 25 % maximum ceiling for the increase of the operational fund referred to in Article 66(3)(c) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 543/2011 shall not apply in respect of expenditure incurred for withdrawal operations of products referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation when those products are withdrawn during the period referred to in Article 1(3) of this Regulation.

Expenditure incurred in accordance with this Article shall form part of the operational fund of the producer organisations.