
Article 1 
Regulation (EC) No 320/2006 is amended as follows:

1.. Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

((a)) paragraph 1(c) shall be replaced by the following:
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((c)) renounces a part or the total of the quota assigned by it to one or more of its factories and does not use the production facilities of the factories concerned for refining raw cane sugar.
This last condition shall not apply in respect of:

— the sole processing plant in Slovenia,
— the sole beet processing plant in Portugal,
existing on 1 January 2006 and full-time refiners as defined in point 13 of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.';
((b)) in paragraph 6, the first and second subparagraphs shall be replaced by the following:
'An amount of 10 % of the relevant restructuring aid fixed in paragraph 5 shall be reserved for:
((a)) growers of sugar beet and cane having concluded a delivery contract with the undertaking concerned during a period preceding the marketing year referred to in paragraph 2 for the production of sugar under the relevant quota renounced;
((b)) machinery contractors, being private persons or enterprises having worked under contract with their agricultural machinery for the growers, for the products and in the period referred to in point (a).After consultation of the interested parties, Member States shall determine the period referred to in the first subparagraph.';
((c)) the following paragraphs shall be added:
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7. For the 2008/2009 marketing year, growers referred to in paragraph 6(a) shall receive an additional payment of EUR 237,5 per tonne of sugar quota renounced.This additional payment shall also be made for the 2009/2010 marketing year where the undertaking concerned renounces a part or the totality of the sugar quota allocated to it as from that marketing year provided that the application is submitted by 31 January 2008.
8. This paragraph shall apply to:
(a) undertakings having renounced under the restructuring scheme in the 2006/2007 or 2007/2008 marketing year a part or the totality of the quota allocated to them; and
(b) growers concerned by the quota renunciation referred to in point (a).Where the amounts granted to undertakings and growers in the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 marketing years were less than the amounts that they would have received if they had restructured under the conditions applicable in the 2008/2009 marketing year, the difference shall be granted to them retroactively.The same shall apply in respect of inulin syrup producers and chicory growers. The latter shall, for that purpose, be deemed as being eligible for the additional payment referred to in paragraph 7.';
2.. after Article 4(1), the following paragraph shall be inserted:
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1a. Undertakings may submit an additional application for restructuring aid to renounce, as from the marketing year 2008/2009, a further part or the totality of the quota allocated to them, until 31 March 2008 in the case where:
— applications at growers’ initiative in accordance with Article 4a or of an undertaking in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article to renounce quota as from the marketing year 2008/2009 have been granted, and
— the quota renounced accordingly corresponds at least to the withdrawal percentage set on 16 March 2007 by Article 1(1) or Article 1(2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 290/2007 of 16 March 2007 establishing for the 2007/2008 marketing year, the percentage provided for in Article 19 of Council Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.However, undertakings situated in Member States where the withdrawal percentage set at the date specified in the second indent of the first subparagraph is 0 may make use of the possibility stipulated in that subparagraph independently of whether applications at growers’ initiative or by themselves were submitted previously.';
3.. the following Article shall be inserted:
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Article 4a 

1. For the 2008/2009 marketing year, any grower of sugar beet or cane intended to be processed into quota sugar may submit to the Member State concerned a direct application for the aid provided for in Article 3(6) and 3(7), accompanied by a commitment to cease delivery of a certain amount of quota beet or cane to the undertaking with which he has concluded a delivery contract in the preceding marketing year.By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, in the framework of an agreement within the trade it may be decided that only growers who have concluded delivery contracts in the preceding marketing year with one and the same undertaking shall be entitled to submit an application as referred to in the first subparagraph provided that:
— the quota allocated to that undertaking corresponds to at least 10 % of the remaining sugar quota fixed for the Member State concerned in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 318/2006, and
— the amount of sugar quota to be renounced by that undertaking plus the amount of sugar quota already renounced by all undertakings within the Member State concerned as a consequence of previous applications in accordance with Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 320/2006 correspond to at least 60 % of the sugar quota fixed for that Member State in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 on 20 February 2006. For those Member States which were not members of the Community on 1 July 2006, the reference to the said Annex III shall concern the version applicable on the date of their accession to the Community.
2. The applications referred to in paragraph 1 shall be submitted by 30 November 2007. Applications may be submitted as from the 30 October 2007.
3. The Member State concerned shall establish a list of applications referred to in paragraph 1 in the chronological order of their lodging and shall communicate the total amount of quota affected by the applications received within 10 working days following the deadline for submission as referred to in paragraph 2 to the Commission and the undertakings concerned.
4. By 15 March 2008, the Member State concerned shall, on the basis of the chronological order referred to in paragraph 3 and after the verification provided for in the fourth indent of Article 5(2), grant growers’ applications corresponding to up to 10 % of the sugar quota allocated to each undertaking and shall reduce in proportion the sugar quota of the undertaking concerned in accordance with Article 11(4) of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006. However, in the case referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article, the Member States concerned shall, under the same conditions, grant growers’ applications corresponding up to 10 % of the remaining sugar quota fixed for this Member State in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.In the case where any of the limits of 10 % referred to in the first subparagraph is reached, the Member State concerned shall reject the applications above this limit according to the chronological order of submission.The undertaking concerned shall establish and implement a social plan as referred to in Article 4(3)(f).
5. As a result of the Member State’s acceptance of applications in accordance with paragraph 4, the amount of restructuring aid to be granted shall be as follows:
(a) for growers and contractors, 10 % of the relevant aid amount fixed in Article 3(5)(c) and for growers the additional payment referred to in Article 3(7);
(b) for undertakings, the relevant aid amount fixed in Article 3(5)(c), reduced by 10 %, or by 60 % if the undertaking concerned does not respect the requirement set out in the third subparagraph of paragraph 4 of this Article.
6. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of this Article shall not apply where an undertaking’s application in accordance with Article 4 has been granted as from the marketing year 2008/2009 renouncing an amount of quota higher than the quota affected by the growers’ applications. The same shall apply in any case, where an undertaking’s application has been granted as from the marketing year 2008/2009 renouncing more than 10 % of its quota.';
4.. in Article 5(1), the following subparagraph shall be added:
'In the case of submission of additional applications for restructuring aid in accordance with Article 4(1a), Member States shall decide, after the verification provided for in the fourth indent of Article 5(2) on the granting of that aid linked to these applications by the end of April 2008.';
5.. in Article 6(4), the third subparagraph shall be replaced by the following:
'The aid provided for in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be higher than the amounts and rates of support laid down in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005.';
6.. Article 10(5) shall be replaced by the following:
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5. The Commission may decide to postpone payment of the aids referred to in Articles 6, 7, 8 and 9 until the necessary financial resources have been paid into the restructuring fund or, in the case where the necessary financial resources are available in that fund, to advance the dates for the payment of the aids.';
7.. in Article 11, the following paragraph shall be added:
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6. In the 2008/2009 marketing year, undertakings which were subject to the application of the withdrawal percentage set on 16 March 2007 by Article 1(1) or Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 290/2007 and which renounce a percentage of their quota of at least that withdrawal percentage shall be exempted from part of the temporary restructuring amount to be paid for the 2007/2008 marketing year.In the case where the conditions referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph are fulfilled, the reduction of the temporary restructuring amount shall be calculated by multiplying that amount by the withdrawal percentage set in accordance with Article 1(1) or 1(2)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 290/2007.'
Article 2 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Luxembourg, 9 October 2007.
For the Council
The President
F. TEIXEIRA DOS SANTOS