(1)

Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 has repealed Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 (2) to continue the progressive integration of further sectors into the single payment scheme and the extension of decoupling. As a consequence, certain aid schemes ceased to exist and therefore the correspondent implementing rules in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004 (3) are no longer needed.

(2)

In mainland France and in Italy new techniques of rice cultivation which requires certain delay in sowing have recently been introduced. Therefore it is appropriate to postpone the deadline for sowing in order to be eligible for crop-specific payment for rice in Italy and France.

(3)

Pursuant to former Article 71 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, Member States might decide to apply the single payment scheme after a transitional period which expired on 31 December 2006 at the latest. As a consequence, certain beef and veal payments laid down in Chapter 12 of that Regulation, that the Member States were allowed to implement only during this transitional period, are no longer applicable. The provisions in Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004 referring to those payments should therefore be deleted.

(4)

From 2009, Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 (4), which lays down detailed rules for the implementation of cross-compliance, modulation and the integrated administration and control system, has been amended to directly apply to the single area payment scheme. The provisions relating to the application of Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 to the single area payment scheme should therefore be deleted from Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004.

(5)

Co-financing of the complementary national direct payments is only relevant for Bulgaria and Romania in 2009. Therefore the rules on control and sanctions in case of co-finance should be updated.

(6)

The set-aside scheme applies only in the form of voluntary set-aside established in former Article 107 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 for the farmers in Member States applying the arable crops area payment in accordance with Article 66 of that Regulation. For the sake of simplification of the administration of the so-called ‘non-food on set-aside’ scheme established in Chapter 16 of Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004, it is appropriate to exclude from this scheme agricultural land used for the cultivation of products eligible to the arable crops area payment.

(7)

Article 103 of Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004 provides that the average milk yield to be used for determining the number of eligible suckler cows in application of Article 111(2) of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 shall be calculated on the basis of the average yields set out in Annex XVI of Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004. That Annex fixes the average milk yield for Spain at 4 650 kilograms. Spain has requested the updating of that average milk yield. In the light of evolution of the milk sector in Spain, which has experienced a continuous increase of the yields of the dairy herd resulting from a restructuring process affecting both the number and the size of the holdings, it is appropriate to update that Annex.

(8)

Commission Decision C(2004) 1439 of 29 April 2004 has been amended to set the agricultural area under the single area payment scheme in the Slovak Republic from 2009 at 1 880 thousand hectares. That amount needs to be reflected in Annex XXI of Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004.

(9)

Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(10)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Direct Payments,

1.

in Article 1, point ‘(h)’ is deleted;

2.

Article 2 is amended as follows:

3.

in Article 4, the reference to Article 98 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 is deleted;

4.

Article 12 is replaced by the following:

5.

Chapter 9 ‘Specific regional aid for arable crops’ is deleted;

6.

in Chapter 13, the Section 2 ‘Deseasonalisation premium’ (Articles 96, 97 and 98), the Article 117, the Subsection 2 ‘Extensification payment scheme’ of Section 4 (Articles 118 to 119), the Section 6 ‘Additional payments’ (Article 125) and the Article 133 are deleted;

7.

Article 126 is amended as follows:

8.

in Article 127(1), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘The date of submission of the application shall constitute the operative event for determining the year to which animals covered by the special premium and suckler cow premium schemes are allocated and the number of LUs to be used for calculating the stocking density.’;

9.

Article 130 is replaced by the following:

(*1)   OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p. 1.’;"

10.

in Article 131, paragraph 6 is deleted;

11.

in Chapter 14, Articles 136, 137 and 138 are deleted;

12.

in Article 140, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

13.

in Article 143, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

14.

in Article 145(1), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘Any agricultural raw material, excepted arable crops listed in Annex IX to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, may be grown on the areas set aside pursuant to the first indent of Article 107(3) of that Regulation.’;

15.

in Article 146(1)(a), the introductory words are replaced by the following:

‘use defined agricultural raw materials, with exception of arable crops listed in Annex IX to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, providing that all appropriate control measures are complied with:’;

16.

in Article 147, paragraph 5 is deleted;

17.

Article 149 is deleted;

18.

in Article 158, paragraph 4 is replaced by the following:

19.

in Article 159, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

20.

in Annex XVI, the figure for Spain is replaced by ‘6 500’;

21.

in Annex XVIII, points 2 ‘Deseasonalisation premium’, 4 ‘Extensification payment’ and 5 ‘Premium exempt from the density factor’ are deleted;

22.

in Annex XXI, the figure referred to agricultural area under single area payment scheme for Slovakia is replaced by ‘1 880’.