CHAPTER IIIAPPLICATION FOR AND GRANTING OF RESTRUCTURING AID
Article 9Eligibility for the restructuring aid
1.
Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 10, the competent authority of the Member State shall decide on the eligibility of an application for restructuring aid and shall inform the applicant of its decision within 30 working days upon reception of the complete application, but at least 10 working days before the deadline provided for in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006.
2.
For the application to be considered eligible, the restructuring plan shall:
(a)
include a summary of the main objectives, the measures and actions as well as the estimated costs of these measures and actions, the financial plan and the time schedules;
(b)
specify for each factory concerned the amount of quota to be renounced, which shall be lower than or equal to the production capacity to be fully or partially dismantled;
(c)
include an attestation that the production facilities will be fully or partially dismantled and removed from the production site;
(d)
take into account the losses or costs involved, between the aid referred to in point (b) of paragraph 3 of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006, the closure and dismantling of the facilities referred to in point (c) of that paragraph, the investments referred to in point (e) of that paragraph, the social plan referred to in point (f) of that paragraph and the environmental plan referred to in point (g) of that paragraph;
(e)
clearly determine all the actions and costs financed by the restructuring fund and, if appropriate, the other related elements intended to be financed by other Community funds.
3.
If the conditions set out in paragraph 2 are not satisfied, the Member State shall inform the applicant of the reasons for this and fix a deadline within the time-limit referred to in Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006, by which the restructuring plan may be adjusted accordingly.
The Member State shall decide on the eligibility of the adjusted application within 15 working days after the deadline referred to in the first subparagraph, but at least 10 working days before the deadline provided for in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006.
If the adjusted application is not presented in due time or is considered ineligible, the application for restructuring aid shall be rejected and the Member State shall inform the applicant and the Commission thereof within five working days. The lodging of a new application from the same applicant shall be subject to the chronological order referred to in Article 8.
F14.
Where an application is considered eligible, the Member State shall notify the Commission within two working days after its decision, using the model table set out in Annex I.
5.
By way of derogation from paragraphs 1, 3 and 4, for the 2006/2007 marketing year, the Member State shall decide on the eligibility of an application or an adjusted application at least eight working days before the deadline provided for in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006 and notify its decision to the Commission on the same day.
F26.
If the competent authority has received no eligible application from an undertaking by the deadline set out in Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006, it shall verify the growers’ applications concerning this undertaking in view of:
(a)
existence of delivery rights in respect of the undertaking concerned in 2007/2008;
(b)
tonnage in white sugar equivalent requested, on the basis of the delivery rights or, if reference is made to beet tonnage or hectares, by using the conversion coefficient applicable according to the agreement within the trade or, in absence of such coefficient, a coefficient fixed by the competent authority of the Member State after consulting representatives of the undertaking and the growers concerned.
The competent authority of the Member State shall inform the Commission at least 10 working days before the deadline provided for in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006 about the total amount of quota to be reduced as a consequence of eligible growers’ applications for each of the undertakings concerned, using the table set out in Annex I to this Regulation.
7.
The competent authority of the Member State shall decide on the eligibility of the social plan to be submitted by an undertaking, and inform the undertaking and the Commission of its decision at least 10 working days before the deadline provided for in 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006.