1. The amendments to be made to the support programme referred to in Chapter II of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 shall be submitted to the Commission for approval and shall be duly substantiated, in particular by giving the following information:
(a)
the reasons for any implementation problems justifying the amendment of the programme;
(b)
the expected effects of the amendment;
(c)
the implications for financing and verification of commitments.
Except in cases of force majeure or exceptional circumstances, Greece shall submit proposals for amendments to the programme only once per calendar year. Such proposals for amendments shall be received by the Commission no later than 30 September each year.
If the Commission raises no objections to the proposed amendments, the amendments envisaged shall apply from 1 January of the year following that in which they were notified.
Such amendments may apply earlier if the Commission confirms in writing to Greece before the date referred to in the third subparagraph that the notified amendments comply with Union legislation.
If the notified amendment does not comply with Union legislation, the Commission shall inform Greece before the date referred to in the third subparagraph that the notified amendment shall not apply until the Commission receives an amendment that can be declared as compliant.
2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the Commission shall evaluate separately the following amendments proposed by Greece and decide on their approval within four months of their submission at the latest in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 22(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013:
(a)
the introduction into the support programme of new groups of products to be supported under the specific supply arrangements or of new measures to assist the local agricultural production; and
(b)
the increase of the unit level of support already approved for each existing measure by more than 50 % of the amount applicable at the time when the proposal for amendment is presented.
Without prejudice to the procedure set out in paragraph 1, Greece may submit the proposals for amendments provided for in this paragraph once per calendar year. The proposals for amendments referred to in this paragraph shall be received by the Commission no later than 31 July of the year prior to their application.
The amendment thus approved shall apply from 1 January of the year following that in which the proposal for an amendment was made or as from the date explicitly indicated in the approval decision.
3. Greece may make the following amendments without recourse to the procedure set out in paragraph 1, provided that the amendments are notified to the Commission:
(a)
in the case of forecast supply balances, changes in the individual level of aid up to 20 % or changes in the quantities of the products concerned covered by the supply balance and, consequently, the global amount of aid allocated to support each line of products;
(b)
as regards all measures, adjustments up to 20 % of the financial allocation for each individual measure, without prejudice of the financial ceilings provided for by Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 on condition that such adjustments are notified not later than 30 April of the year following the calendar year to which the amended financial allocation refers; and
(c)
changes following amendments to codes and descriptions laid down in Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 ( 11 ) used to identify the products benefiting from aid, as long as those amendments do not entail a change of the products themselves.
4. The amendments referred to in paragraph 3 shall not apply before the date on which they are received by the Commission. They shall be duly explained and justified and may be implemented only once per year except in the following cases:
(a)
force majeure or exceptional circumstances;
(b)
amendment of the quantities of products covered by the supply arrangements,
(c)
changes following amendments to codes and descriptions laid down in Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87.
5. For the purposes of this Article the following definitions shall apply:
(a)
‘measure’ means the grouping of aid schemes and actions necessary to achieve one or more objectives for the programme constituting a line for which a financial allocation is defined in in the financing table referred to in Article 5(a) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013;
(b)
‘group of products’ means all products sharing the first two digits of the CN code as provided for in Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87.
6. The notifications referred to in this Article shall be made in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 792/2009.