
Article 1 
Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 is amended as follows:

1.. in Article 67(2), point (c) is replaced by the following:
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((c)) increase the amount of the operational fund by a maximum of 25 %, and decrease it by a percentage to be fixed by Member States, of the amount initially approved provided the overall objectives of the operational programme are maintained. Member States may increase this percentage in case of mergers of producer organisations as referred to in Article 31(1) and in case of application of Article 94a.';
2.. in Article 82(2), point (d) is replaced by the following:
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((d)) the distance between the place of withdrawal and the place of delivery.';
3.. in Article 94(1), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:
'Member States shall submit a request to the Commission for authorisation to grant national financial assistance pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 for operational programmes to be implemented in any given calendar year by 31 January of that year.';
4.. after Article 94, the following Article 94a is inserted:
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Article 94a 
A producer organisation wishing to apply for national financial assistance shall, if necessary, modify its operational programme pursuant to Article 67.';
5.. in Article 97, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:
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1. Member States shall request Community reimbursement of approved national financial assistance actually paid to producer organisations, before 1 January of the second year following the year of implementation of the programme.The request shall be accompanied by evidence showing that the conditions set out in the second subparagraph of Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 have been fulfilled in three of the previous four years, as well as details of the producer organisations concerned, the amount of assistance actually paid and a description of the operational fund broken out between total amount, contributions from Community, Member State (national financial assistance) and producer organisations and members.';
6.. Article 116 is amended as follows:

((a)) the fourth subparagraph of paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:
'Member States may make payments after the deadline set out in Article 71 where this is necessary in order to apply this paragraph. However, these later payments may not in any case be made later than 15 October of the second year following the year of implementation of the programme.';
((b)) after the first subparagraph of paragraph 3, the following subparagraph is inserted:
'Member States may make payments after the deadline set out in Article 71 where this is necessary in order to apply this paragraph. However, these later payments may not in any case be made later than 15 October of the second year following the year of implementation of the programme.';
7.. in point (b) of the first paragraph of Article 122, the second sentence is deleted;
8.. in Article 152, the following paragraphs are added:
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4. By way of derogation from Article 47(2) of this Regulation, producers groups which are implementing recognition plans to which Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 applies and which are not broken into semestrial periods may submit applications for aid covering semestrial periods. Such applications may cover only semestrial periods corresponding to the yearly segments which started before 2008.
5. By way of derogation from Article 96, in respect of operational programmes implemented in 2007, additional financial assistance to operational funds shall be financed by EAGF at a level of 50 % of the financial assistance granted to the producer organisation.
6. Recognition plans accepted under Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 which continue to benefit from acceptance pursuant to Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 for producer groups not in Member States which acceded to the Community on 1 May 2004 or after that date and not in the outermost regions of the Community as referred to in Article 299(2) of the Treaty or in the smaller Aegean islands as referred to in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006 shall be financed at the rates set out in Article 7(5)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.Recognition plans accepted under Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 which benefitted from Article 14(7) of that Regulation and continue to benefit from acceptance pursuant to Article 55(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 shall be financed at the rates set out in Article 7(5)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007.
7. Payments of Community withdrawal compensation and related checks which concern 2007 withdrawals but which were not yet made by 31 December 2007 may nevertheless be made after that date in accordance with Title IV of Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 as it existed at that date.
8. Where, in respect of an application for aid submitted for operational programmes implemented in 2007 or before, and in relation to acts or omissions which occurred in that period, a sanction would apply under Section 3 of Chapter V of Title III but a less severe sanction or no sanction would have applied under the legislation in force at the time, then that less severe sanction, or as the case may be, no sanction, shall apply.'
Article 2 
By way of derogation from Article 94 of Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007, in respect of operational programmes implemented in 2007 and 2008, Member States shall submit a request to the Commission for authorisation to pay national financial assistance pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1182/2007 by 1 July 2008.
Article 3 
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 Brussels, 23 June 2008.
For the Commission
Mariann FISCHER BOEL
Member of the Commission