Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1366 of 11 May 2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to aid in the apiculture sector

For the purposes of this Regulation, the term ‘beehive’ means the unit containing a honeybee colony used for the production of honey, other apiculture products or honeybee breeding material, and all the elements necessary for its survival.

Member States submitting national programmes for the apiculture sector as referred to in Article 55 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 (‘apiculture programmes’) shall have a reliable method to determine, between 1 September and 31 December each year, the number of beehives ready for wintering present in their territory.

From 2017, Member States submitting apiculture programmes shall notify to the Commission each year the number of beehives in their territory ready for wintering as determined in accordance with the method referred to in Article 2.

The Union contribution to apiculture programmes shall be allocated to Member States with apiculture programmes in proportion to the average total number of beehives notified by such Member States in accordance with Article 3 during the two calendar years immediately preceding the notification to the Commission of the apiculture programmes. The minimum Union contribution shall be EUR 25000 per apiculture programme. If the amount of Union financing requested by a Member State for its apiculture programme is lower than the allocation resulting from the first paragraph, the Union contribution to the apiculture programmes of the other Member States may be increased in proportion to the number of beehives they have respectively notified.

Member States shall ensure that there is no double funding of apiculture programmes under aid in the apiculture sector pursuant to Article 55 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and rural development support pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013.

For the amounts paid as aid in the apiculture sector pursuant to Article 55 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, the operative event for the exchange rate shall be that referred to in Article 34(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014.

Regulation (EC) No 917/2004 is repealed. However, Regulation (EC) No 917/2004 shall continue to apply to the apiculture programmes approved before 1 January 2014 until those programmes come to an end.

1 Member States may amend their apiculture programmes approved before 1 January 2014 in order to include new apiculture measures listed in Article 55(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.

2 The allocation of Union funds for the 2017-19 apiculture programmes shall be made on the basis of the number of beehives communicated in 2013 by the Member States in their respective 2014-16 apiculture programmes.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.