FantasticSearch

1. Where needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak or to mitigate the effects of the market disruption caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on the supply chain of fishery and aquaculture products, the EMFF may support compensation to recognised producer organisations and associations of producer organisations which store fishery or aquaculture products listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 or products falling within CN code 0302 as listed in point (a) of Annex I to that Regulation, provided that those products are stored in accordance with Articles 30 and 31 of that Regulation, and subject to the following conditions:

(a) the amount of the storage aid does not exceed the amount of the technical and financial costs of the actions required for the stabilisation and storage of the products in question;

(b) the quantities eligible for storage aid do not exceed 25 % of the annual quantities of the products concerned put up for sale by the producer organisation;

(c) the financial support per year does not exceed 20 % of the average annual value of the production placed on the market by the members of the producer organisation in the period 2017–2019. For the purposes of point (c) of the first subparagraph, where a member of the producer organisation did not place any production on the market in the period 2017 to 2019, the average annual value of production placed on the market in the first three years of production of that member shall be taken into account.

2. The support referred to in paragraph 1 shall end on 31 December 2020, except if it mitigates the effects of the market disruption caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on the supply chain of fishery and aquaculture products. In accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 65(9) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 and by way of derogation from the first subparagraph thereof, expenditure for operations supported under this Article shall be eligible as from 1 February 2020 to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and as from 24 February 2022 to mitigate the effects of the market disruption caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on the supply chain of fishery and aquaculture products.

3. The support referred to in paragraph 1 shall only be granted once the products are released for human consumption.

4. Member States shall fix the amount of the technical and financial costs applicable in their territories as follows:

(a) technical costs shall be calculated each year on the basis of direct costs relating to the actions required in order to stabilise and store the products in question;

(b) financial costs shall be calculated each year using the interest rate set annually in each Member State; These technical and financial costs shall be made publicly available.

5. Member States shall carry out controls to ensure that the products benefiting from storage aid fulfil the conditions laid down in this Article. For the purposes of such controls, beneficiaries of storage aid shall keep stock records for each category of products entered into storage and later reintroduced onto the market for human consumption.