Types of actions
1. Information provision and promotion measures shall take the form of:
(a)
information and promotion programmes (‘programmes’), and
(b)
the measures on the initiative of the Commission referred to in Article 9.
2. Programmes shall consist of a coherent set of operations and shall be implemented over a period of at least one but not more than three years.
3. Simple programmes, further details of which are provided in Section 2 of this Chapter, may be submitted by one or more of the proposing organisations referred to in points (a), (c) or (d) of Article 7(1), which shall all be from the same Member State.
4. Multi programmes, further details of which are provided in Section 3 of this Chapter, may be submitted by:
(a)
at least two proposing organisations referred to in points (a), (c) or (d) of Article 7(1), which shall all be from at least two Member States; or
(b)
one or more Union organisations referred to in point (b) of Article 7(1).
Proposing organisations
1. A programme may be proposed by:
(a)
trade or inter-trade organisations, established in a Member State and representative of the sector or sectors concerned in that Member State, and in particular the interbranch organisations as referred to in Article 157 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and groups as defined in point 2 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, provided that they are representative for the name protected under the latter Regulation which is covered by that programme;
(b)
trade or inter-trade organisations of the Union representative of the sector or sectors concerned at Union level;
(c)
producer organisations or associations of producer organisations, as referred to in Articles 152 and 156 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 that have been recognised by a Member State;
(d)
agri-food sector bodies the objective and activity of which is to provide information on, and to promote, agricultural products and which have been entrusted, by the Member State concerned, with a clearly defined public service mission in this area; those bodies must have been legally established in the Member State in question at least two years prior to the date of the call for proposals referred to in Article 8(2).
2. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 22, setting out the specific conditions under which each of the proposing organisations, groups and bodies referred to in paragraph 1 may submit a programme. Those conditions shall, in particular, guarantee that those organisations, groups and bodies are representative and that the programme is on a significant scale.
Annual work programme
1. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts, laying down for each year an annual work programme setting out the operational objectives to be pursued, the operational priorities, the expected results, the method of implementation and the total amount of the financing plan. That annual work programme, and in particular its operational priorities, shall comply with the general and specific objectives set out in Article 2. In particular, the programme shall provide for specific temporary arrangements to react to serious market disturbance, loss of consumer confidence or other specific problems as referred to in point (e) of Article 2(2). It shall also contain the main evaluation criteria, a description of the measures to be financed, an indication of the amounts allocated to each type of measure, an indicative implementation timetable and, in the case of grants, the maximum rate of the Union’s financial contribution. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 23(2).
2. The work programme referred to in paragraph 1 shall be implemented, for simple and multi programmes, through the publication by the Commission of calls for proposals in accordance with Title VI of Part I of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 14 ) .
Measures on the initiative of the Commission
1. The Commission may carry out information and promotion measures as described in Article 3, including campaigns, in the event of serious market disturbance, loss of consumer confidence or other specific problems referred to in point (e) of Article 2(2). Those measures may in particular take the form of high-level missions, participation in trade fairs and exhibitions of international importance by means of stands, or operations aimed at enhancing the image of Union products.
2. The Commission shall develop technical support services, in particular with a view to:
(a)
encouraging awareness of different markets, including by means of exploratory business meetings;
(b)
maintaining a dynamic professional network around information and promotion policy, including providing advice to the sector with regard to the threat of imitation and counterfeit products in third countries; and
(c)
improving knowledge of Union rules concerning programme development and implementation.
Prohibition on double funding
Information provision and promotion measures financed under this Regulation shall not be the subject of any other financing under the Union’s budget.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
