Outlying and remote regions: specific measures for agriculture in favour of the smaller Aegean islands

PURPOSE: to amend Council Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006 in order to make it compatible with the Treaty and other secondary EU legislation.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

CONTENT: in 2006 the EU adopted legislation laying down specific agricultural measures in favour of the small Aegean Islands (See Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006 CNS/2006/0093). Two lines of support to the small Aegean Islands are foreseen in the Regulation in order to alleviate the problems deriving from the particular geographical situation of some of the islands and the additional transport costs entailed in supplying certain products to them. The two main lines of support refer to:

1. Products which are essential for human consumption; for processing; or as agricultural inputs. This provision is set out in Article 3 to the Regulation. They are, however, also included in Annex I to the Treaty. Article 3, therefore, needs to be amended in order to limit the scope of the Article to these products only.
2. Local agricultural products in general (Article 7). These refer, inter alia, to products of the soil, of stock farming and of fisheries and products of first-stage processing directly related to these products. Article 7 also needs to be amended in order to make it compatible with the Treaty (Title II of Part Three)

Furthermore, most of the measures referred to in Chapter III of Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006 constitute direct payments. They should, therefore, be referenced in Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003. On a final point, Article 9(e) of the Regulation refers to checks and administrative penalties. The Commission is proposing to amend this Article in order to exclude checks and administrative penalties from programme proposals submitted by the competent authorities of Greece.

For the reasons outlined above, the Commission is proposing to amend Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006.