Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1972

Contents

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/1139 of 7 July 2021 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1004^note, and in particular Article 36(6) thereof,Whereas:

(1)Under Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1139, the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (‘EMFAF’) may support the compensation of additional costs incurred by operators in the fishing, farming, processing and marketing of certain fishery and aquaculture products from the Union’s outermost regions referred to in Article 349 of the Treaty.

(2)According to Article 35 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1139, for each outermost region, the Member State concerned should describe the methodology for the calculation of the compensation of the additional costs in the action plan referred to in that Article.

(3)Pursuant to Article 36(6) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1139, the Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts laying down the criteria for the calculation of the additional costs resulting from the specific handicaps of the regions concerned.

(4)In order to provide for a harmonised and equal treatment of all regions concerned and to avoid overcompensation of additional costs, it is necessary to lay down the criteria for the calculation of the additional costs resulting from the specific handicaps of the Union’s outermost regions. The common criteria to be used should ensure that a homogeneous method of calculation of the additional costs is applied to all regions concerned.

(5)Reference costs for products or categories of products incurred by operators in the continental part of the Member State or of the Union territory, on the basis of which additional costs are determined, should be estimated with particular care to avoid overcompensation.

(6)There are products or categories of products, for which no comparison criteria or measuring units in the continental part of the Member State territory concerned exist. In such cases, the reference for calculating the additional cost should be set in comparison with the costs for equivalent products or categories of products incurred by operators from the continental part of the territory of the Union.

(7)In view of the different marketing conditions in the outermost regions, the fluctuations in captures and stocks and in market demands, it should be left to the Member States concerned to determine the fishery and aquaculture products or categories of products eligible for compensation, their respective maximum quantities and the levels of the compensation amounts within the overall allocation per Member State.

(8)Member States should set the compensation amounts at a level, which allows appropriate offsetting of additional costs arising from the specific handicaps of the outermost regions and avoids overcompensation. To that end, the compensation amount should also take into account other types of public intervention, including any State aid notified under Article 108(3) of the Treaty and Article 37 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1139, having an impact on the level of additional costs.

(9)In order to provide for a harmonised presentation of additional costs, it is necessary to express additional costs on the basis of tons of live weight, determined in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009^note and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011^note, which establishes product presentation codes for processed fish and European Union conversion factors for fresh and fresh salted fish to convert stored or processed fish weight into fish live weight for the purpose of monitoring catches.

(10)In order to allow for the prompt application of the measures provided for in this Regulation, given that expenditure is already eligible for the EMFAF since 1 January 2021 in line with Article 63(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note, this Regulation should enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,

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