1.Each Member State shall ensure that any economic operator on which it imposes stockholding obligations in order to fulfil its obligations under Article 3 is given the right to delegate those obligations at least in part and at the choice of the economic operator, but only to:
(a)the CSE of the Member State on whose account such stocks are held;
(b)one or more other CSEs which have in advance declared themselves willing to hold such stocks, provided that such delegations have been authorised in advance both by the Member State on whose account such stocks are held and by all Member States within whose territories the stocks will be held;
(c)other economic operators which have surplus stocks or available stockholding capacity outside of the territory of the Member State on whose account the stocks are held within the Community, provided that such delegation has been authorised in advance both by the Member State on whose account such stocks are held and by all Member States within whose territories the stocks will be held; and/or
(d)other economic operators which have surplus stocks or available stockholding capacity within the territory of the Member State on whose account the stocks are held, provided that such delegation has been communicated in advance to the Member State. Member States may impose limits or conditions on such delegations.
Obligations delegated in accordance with points (c) and (d) may not be subdelegated. Any change to or extension of a delegation referred to in points (b) and (c) shall only take effect if authorised in advance by all Member States which authorised the delegation. Any change to or extension of a delegation referred to in point (d) shall be treated as a new delegation.
2.Each Member State may restrict the delegation rights of the economic operators on which it imposes or has imposed stockholding obligations.
However, where such restrictions limit the delegation rights of an economic operator to amounts corresponding to less than 10 % of the stockholding obligation imposed on it, the Member State shall ensure that it has set up a CSE that is required to accept delegations in respect of the amount needed to safeguard the right of an economic operator to delegate at least 10 % of the stockholding obligation imposed on it.
The minimum percentage referred to in this paragraph shall be increased from 10 % to 30 % by 31 December 2017.
3.Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2, a Member State may impose an obligation on an economic operator to delegate at least part of its stockholding obligation to the CSE of the Member State.
4.Member States shall take the necessary measures to inform economic operators of the modalities to be used to calculate the stockholding obligations imposed on them no later than 200 days prior to the start of the period to which the obligation in question relates. Economic operators shall exercise their right to delegate stockholding obligations to CSEs no later than 170 days prior to the start of the period to which the obligation in question relates.
Where economic operators are informed less than 200 days before the start of the period to which the stockholding obligation relates, they may exercise their right to delegate that obligation at any time.