(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1238/95 of 31 May 1995 establishing implementing rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 as regards the fees payable to the Community Plant Variety Office (2), sets out the fees payable to the Community Plant Variety Office (‘the Office’), and the levels of those fees.

(2)

The financial reserve of the Office had reached a level which exceeded the level necessary to safeguard the continuity of its operations. For this reason the annual fee and the fees relating to technical examination were reduced. The financial reserve of the Office has now decreased to an appropriate level and the revenue should therefore be raised again to a level which is sufficient for the budget of the Office to be balanced. To achieve this, the annual fee and the fees relating to technical examination should be increased.

(3)

As regards new species, the experience gathered with the fee groups for the technical examination of ornamentals, has shown that there is a need to amend some of those fee groups.

(4)

To facilitate the payment of fees and charges, payment by payment cards should be allowed subject to conditions and limitations to be determined by the President of the Office.

(5)

At the same time the terms ‘ecus’ and ‘ECU’ should be respectively replaced by the terms ‘euros’ and ‘EUR’ throughout Regulation (EC) No 1238/95.

(6)

Regulation (EC) No 1238/95 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(7)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Community Plant Variety Rights,

1.

in Article 1(2), the word ‘ecus’ is replaced by ‘euros’;

2.

in Article 3(2), points (a), (b) and (c) are replaced by the following:

3.

in Article 7(1), Article 8(1), Article 10(1), points (a), (c) and (d), Article 11(1), Article 13(3) and Article 14(2) and (4), the word ‘ECU’ is replaced by ‘EUR’;

4.

Article 9(1) is replaced by the following:

5.

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1238/95 is replaced by the text in the Annex to this Regulation.