CHAPTER 1PURPOSE, DEFINITIONS AND CONDITIONS OF ELIGIBILITY FOR THE AID

Article 1Purpose

This Regulation lays down detailed rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003 on the common organisation of the market in dried fodder.

Article 2Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

‘ dried fodder ’ means the products referred to in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003;

‘ similar fodder products ’ means all artificially heat-dried herbage fodder products falling within CN code 1214 90 90 and in particular:

herbage legumes,

herbage grasses,

whole plants, harvested green with unripe grain, of the cereals listed in point I of Annex IX to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003;

‘ processing undertaking ’ means the dried fodder processing undertaking referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003, duly approved by the Member State in which it is located;

‘ purchaser of fodder for drying and/or grinding ’ means the natural or legal persons referred to in Article 10(c)(iii) of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003, duly approved by the Member State where they are established, who purchase fresh fodder from producers in order to deliver it to processing undertakings;

‘ lot ’ means a specific quantity of fodder of uniform quality as regards composition, moisture content and protein content, leaving a processing undertaking at the same time;

‘ mixture ’ means an animal feed product containing dried fodder which has been dried and/or ground by the processing undertaking, and additives.

‘ Additives ’ are products of a different type from dried fodder, including binding agents and caking agents, or of the same type but dried and/or ground elsewhere.

However, dried fodder containing no more than 3 % additives as a percentage of the total weight of the finished product shall not be regarded as a mixture where the total nitrogen content, relative to the dry matter of the additive, does not exceed 2,4 %;

‘agricultural parcels’ means the parcels identified in accordance with the identification system for agricultural parcels in the integrated administration and control system referred to in Articles 18 and 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and in Article 6 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004

OJ L 141, 30.4.2004, p. 18 .

;

‘ single aid application ’ means the aid application referred to in Article 22 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Articles 12 and 14 of Regulation (EC) No 796/2004;

‘ final consignee of a lot of dried fodder ’ means the last person to have received that lot in the form in which it left the processing undertaking, with a view to processing the dried fodder or using it in animal feed.

Article 3Products eligible for aid

For the purposes of this Regulation, the aid provided for in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003 shall be payable on dried fodder meeting, in addition to the requirements specified in Article 9 of that Regulation, the requirements for being placed on the market as feedingstuffs which leave, in the unaltered state or as a mixture, the premises of the processing undertaking, or, where they cannot be stored on the latter, a storage location outside the same which provides adequate guarantees of proper supervision of the stored fodder and which has been approved in advance by the competent authority.

The aid shall be payable solely on quantities of products obtained by drying fodder produced on parcels utilised for agriculture within the meaning of Article 51 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003.

Article 4Exclusion

Fodder from areas already benefiting from an aid scheme provided for in Title IV of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 shall not be eligible for the aid provided for in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1786/2003.

However, on areas in receipt of seed aid as referred to in Chapter 9 of Title IV of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, only fodder plants on which the seed has been harvested shall be excluded from the aid.

Conversely, areas in receipt of an arable crops area payment as referred to in Chapter 10 of Title IV of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 shall be eligible for the aid for processing into dried fodder provided that they have been sown entirely with arable crops in accordance with local conditions.