Key Benefits:
The Prime Minister,
On the report of the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry and the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Rural Affairs,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3950/92 of 28 December 1992 as amended establishing an additional levy in the milk and dairy sector;
Having regard to Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1392/2001 of 9 July 2001, setting out the modalities for the application of the additional sampling in the dairy and dairy sector;
Having regard to Council Directive No. 92/46/EEC of 16 June 1992 as amended to stop sanitary rules for the production and marketing of raw milk, heat treated milk and milk-based products;
Considering the rural code;
Considering the criminal code;
Considering Act No. 83-8 of 7 January 1983 on the division of competence between municipalities, departments, regions and the State;
In view of Decree No. 83-247 of 18 March 1983 establishing a National Interprofessional Office for Milk and Dairy Products (ONILAIT);
Considering Decree No. 2002-1001 of 16 July 2002 on the control of the production of cow milk;
Based on the opinion of the Board of Directors of ONILAIT dated 19 September 2002,
Decrete:
Any producer, as defined in Article 9, subparagraph (c), of the aforementioned Regulation (EEC) No. 3950/92, entitled to a quantity of reference to the date of submission of its application pursuant to Article 1 of the decree of July 16, 2002 referred to and having delivered and/or marketed milk or dairy products since the first day of the dairy campaign, may apply for compensation for finalization of milk
The amount of the allowance is calculated by operation on the basis of the producer's reference quantity for dairy and/or direct sales, by applying the following scale:
EUR 0.19 per litre within 100,000 litres;
EUR 0.10 per litre of 100 001 to 150,000 litres;
EUR 0.06 per litre of 150 001 to 200,000 litres;
EUR 0.01 per litre above 200,000 litres.
However, the additional reference amounts, granted on the basis of articles 9 and 13 of the above-mentioned decree of 16 July 2002, as well as article 5 of Decree No. 84-661 of 17 July 1984 or articles 9 and 15 bis of amended Decree No. 91-157 of 11 February 1991 are excluded.
In the event of partial abandonment of production, the additional reference quantities excluded from the compensation plate are assessed on the prorated basis of the said additional quantities, referred to above, in the entire reference.
The basis for calculating the allowance referred to in the first paragraph of this section is appropriate to take into account the current land transfers or the effective date prior to the filing date of the claim.
The right to benefit from this allowance shall be open within the limits of the amounts collected under the conditions provided for in section 2, paragraph 4, of the above-mentioned Regulation (EEC) No. 3950/92, as well as, if any, within the limits of the financing of the territorial authorities, of the dairy interprofessional defined by the provisions of the rural code and of the buyers of milk and dairy products.
The above funding is allocated by region or, where applicable, by department, by decision of the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Rural Affairs.
If, at the regional level, the amount of the envelope provided for in the preceding paragraph is not used in full, the relics identified will be assigned to requests not yet taken into account, according to the order of priority defined in Article 7.
As part of the financing referred to in the first paragraph of this Article, buyers may only intervene if some of their delivery providers on the first day of the dairy campaign enter one of the following categories:
- young farmers who meet the conditions set out in Decree No. 81-246 of 17 March 1981 or articles R.* 343-3 to R. 343-19 of the Rural Code relating to the settlement of young farmers who settled after 1 April 1984 and before 1 November 1988;
- producers with a development plan or a material improvement plan referred to in Decree No. 85-1144 of 30 October 1985 and having approved their plan after 1 April 1984 and before 1 November 1988,
and which will not be able to receive an additional amount of reference before the last day of the dairy season within the limits of their needs. The amount that each purchaser is allowed to finance is capped to the required litters, as determined by the ONILAIT.
The financing of the territorial authorities, the dairy interprofessional and buyers is put in place within the framework of the conventions with the State and is paid to the ONILAIT which uses them when the funds obtained under Article 2, paragraph 4, of the aforementioned Regulation (EEC) No 3950/92 are exhausted. These conventions must be signed before February 1 of each dairy campaign.
ONILAIT may participate in the financing of the agreements concluded with buyers, by means of the sums collected under Article L. 654-32 of the Rural Code then of Control; However, this funding cannot exceed 50 per cent of the budget of each convention.
The amounts of compensation in respect of the financing of the local authorities, the dairy interprofessional and buyers are paid at the rates set out in section 2 and are recorded separately.
The producer shall, by 30 November 2002, address or file an application with the prefect of the department of the headquarters of the farm.
The deadline for sending or depositing is 31 October, starting with the following dairy campaigns.
The producer undertakes:
- not to withdraw its request;
- not to change a buyer until the notification of the award of compensation;
- not to make use of the provisions contained in section 7 of the above-mentioned Regulation (EEC) No. 3950/92 and to make no land transfer until the date of the award decision.
In the event that the application is accepted, the producer who has applied for a total abandonment allowance shall also:
- to cease definitively and completely to deliver and market milk and dairy products no later than March 31 of the campaign under which the application was made;
- to waive any right to a reference quantity within the framework of the regulation (UNECE) No. 3950/92 referred to above.
In the event that the application is accepted, the producer who has applied for a partial abandonment allowance will no longer apply for a partial abandonment allowance in the future. If he seeks and obtains, in a subsequent campaign, a total abandonment allowance, the scale set out in section 3 of this Order will be applied to him, taking into account the amounts already compensated for the partial cessation.
In the event that an act inducing the expiry of the lease occurred prior to the filing of the application, the lessee may be attributable to that award if the landowners and, where applicable, the future operators, when known as the commitments entered into at the filing date of the application, give their consent in writing.
When the producer manages several production units, dairy production activity, compensation and commitments are valued at all of these production units. For common farming groups, the provisions of Article L. 323-13 of the Rural Code are applied.
The prefect acknowledges receipt of the request.
It examines and determines its admissibility under:
- its date of sending or deposit to the departmental direction of agriculture and forest;
- respect by the applicant of the conditions set out in Article 1.
It shall directly notify the applicants concerned of the findings of admissibility within the meaning of the paragraph above.
It communicates to the departmental agricultural guidance committee, for information, the list of producers whose application is admissible.
It sends the applications admissible to the ONILAIT.
ONILAIT reviews and accepts applications by administrative region with respect to the regional distribution of funding under Article 3, second paragraph.
If the number of applications exceeds the planned funding, and depending on the available balances referred to in Article 3, paragraph 3, they will be accepted at the regional level by holding:
- in the first place, applications submitted by producers whose compensable reference quantity does not exceed 100,000 litres and whose deliveries do not meet the standards for the application of the above-mentioned Directive No. 92/46/EEC;
- secondly, the total abandonment requests submitted by producers whose compensable reference quantity does not exceed 100,000 litres;
- thirdly, producers whose compensable reference quantity is greater than 100,000 litres and whose deliveries do not meet the standards for the application of the aforementioned Directive No. 92/46/EEC;
- lastly, producers not returning to any of the above categories,
and in all cases, by following the increasing order of the amounts of compensable reference or, in the event of their equality, the aggregate amounts of reference of the applicants.
On an exceptional basis, the demands of producers forced to cease their activities during the campaign following serious health problems, the death of their spouse or one of their associates, jeopardizing the proper operation of their operations, may, on the proposal of the prefect, be considered as a priority in relation to other applications, after the advice of the departmental agricultural guidance commission.
These proposals should be motivated by circumstantial elements, justifying the particular situation of these producers.
For the purposes of this section, deliveries that do not meet the standards for the application of the above-mentioned Directive 92/46/EEC are valued taking into account the results of at least two analytical periods during the current campaign and the one before the application. These periods of analysis are not necessarily consecutive.
These same criteria are applied to applications eligible for funding from local authorities, dairy interprofessionals or buyers referred to in Article 3.
The Director of ONILAIT decides on the award of compensation to the recipient, on the proposal of the Prefect.
It shall notify, under the prefect's cover, of the award or refusal of compensation to the applicant before March 1 of the campaign under which the claim was filed.
For the delivery activity, the fulfillment of the commitments of the producers referred to in Article 5 is attested by the buyer(s) who communicate to the ONILAIT, under cover of the prefect of the department concerned:
- the certificate of termination within 30 days of the date of such termination;
- either the buyer's notification to the producer of the amount of reference for the current campaign and the new amount of reference for the following campaign revealing the count of permanently abandoned quantities.
For the direct sales activity, the fulfillment of the commitments of the direct sales producers referred to in section 5 is attested by the supply by the beneficiary producer to the ONILAIT of a declaration of cessation of direct sales production within 30 days of the date of that cessation.
The liquidation and payment of the allowance are provided by the NILAIT. It controls evidence to verify the producer's commitments under Article 5.
The allowance is paid in one time.
When the recipient has applied for a total abandonment allowance, the awarding of the allowance will result in the cancellation for the operation and allocation to the national reserve of the quantities of reference for delivery and for direct sales.
When the recipient has applied for a partial abandonment allowance, the awarding of the allowance will result in the cancellation for the operation and allocation to the national reserve of the portion of the amount of reference for direct deliveries and/or sales for which the allowance is claimed.
The ONILAIT monitors on-site compliance with the commitments referred to in Article 5, the sincerity and accuracy of the statements made and the documents produced in support of the claim for compensation.
In the event of a misrepresentation, or if the beneficiary of the allowance does not comply with his or her commitments, the NILAIT will be required to remit the unduly collected amounts, increased by interest at the legal rate calculated from the payment of these amounts, without prejudice to the penalties provided for in Article 441-6, paragraph 2, of the Penal Code.
Decree No. 2001-1365 of 28 December 2001 concerning the granting of compensation for the total or partial abandonment of dairy production is repealed.
The Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Rural Affairs and the Minister Delegate for Budget and Budget Reform are responsible, each with respect to it, for the execution of this Order, to be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
Done in Paris, November 12, 2002.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
By the Prime Minister:
Minister of Agriculture, Food,
and Rural Affairs,
Hervé Gaymard
Minister of Economy,
finance and industry,
Francis Mer
Minister for Budget
and budgetary reform,
Alain Lambert
