Brussels, 06/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 5 February 2009, the European Commission adopted a communication with annexes relating to 240 acts of agricultural legislation that have been scrapped from EU legislation, selected using objective criteria to ensure their action has run out and the aims of the legislation have been met.
The obsolete measures that the European Commission is scrapping cover the following: acts relating to the granting of financial aid from the EU: acts granting a statue or a specific exemption limited in time that has expired (derogations); acts of a temporary nature, principally the “marketing year regulations” (setting of aid amounts, ceilings for financial assistance, intervention thresholds, dates, annual rules relating to the management of tariff quotas, establishment of the forecast supply balance for the outermost regions and Aegean Islands, etc); Commission regulations relating to a legal mechanism (for instance intervention or the system of import levies after the Uruguay Round) which no longer exists and where the replacement legal framework fails to provide a legal basis for repeal; exceptional market support measures adopted to deal with the specific effects of a veterinary crisis; and temporary or transitional measure linked to the accession of new member states or acts that have become obsolete due to accession.
The sectors covered by the obsolete rules are cereals, fruit and vegetables, bananas, milk, beef and veal, rice, oils, fats, sugar and tobacco. (L.C./transl.fl)