PURPOSE: to establish a levy in the milk and milk products sector.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Regulation 1406/2006/EC amending Regulation 1788/2003/EC establishing a levy in the milk and milk products sector.
CONTENT: the purpose of this Regulation is to improve budgetary forecasting, and to make budgetary management for levies in the milk and milk product sector, more flexible by amending Regulation 1788/2003/EC, so that the levy is available at the start of the budget year.
Provision has therefore been made for the levy due to be paid between 16 October to 30 November of each year, as opposed to 1 October as was previously the case. In order to make the levy payable by Member States for the years 2005/2006, available at the start of the next budget year, the Regulation provides that the provision concerned applies as from 1 September 2006.
For the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia the national reference quantities for direct sales were fixed on the basis of the situation before their accession. However, following the restructuring process in the dairy sectors in the new Member States and because of stricter hygiene provisions for direct sales, it appears that individual producers have not chosen to apply for individual reference quantities for direct sales. As a result the total individual reference quantifies allocated to the producers for direct sales are substantially below the national reference quantities. Important unused quantities remain in the national reserves for direct sales.
To solve this problem and to make it possible to use the direct sales quantities that may remain unused in the national reserve, this Regulation allows for the 2005/2006 period for a single transfer of the reference quantities for direct sales to the reference quantities for deliveries upon a requested from a new Member State.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 3 October 2006.