Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1155 of 15 February 2017 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 as regards the control measures relating to the cultivation of hemp, certain provisions on the greening payment, the payment for young farmers in control of a legal person, the calculation of the per unit amount in the framework of voluntary coupled support, the fractions of payment entitlements and certain notification requirements relating to the single area payment scheme and the voluntary coupled support, and amending Annex X to Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council

1 For the purposes of Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, the eligibility of areas used for the production of hemp shall be subject to the use of seed of the varieties listed in the “Common Catalogue of Varieties of Agricultural Plant Species” on 15 March of the year in respect of which the payment is granted and published in accordance with Article 17 of Council Directive 2002/53/EC . The seed shall be certified in accordance with Council Directive 2002/57/EC .

2 Member States shall establish the system for determining the Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol content (hereinafter referred to as “THC content”) in hemp varieties, which allows them to apply the method set out in Annex III.

3 The competent authority of the Member State shall keep the records related to findings on the THC content. Such records shall comprise for each variety at least the results in terms of THC content from each sample expressed in percentage to two decimal places, the procedure used, the number of tests carried out, an indication of the point at which the sample was taken and measures taken at national level.

4 If an average of all the samples of a given variety exceeds the THC content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, Member States shall use procedure B as described in Annex III to this Regulation for the variety concerned in the course of the following claim year. That procedure shall be used in the course of the next claim years unless all the analytical results for the given variety are below the THC content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013.

5 If for the second year the average of all the samples of a given variety exceeds the THC content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013, the Member State shall notify the Commission of the request for authorisation to prohibit the marketing of such variety in accordance with Article 18 of Directive 2002/53/EC. Such notification shall be sent in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 792/2009 by 15 January of the following claim year at the latest. Starting from that claim year, the variety covered by that request shall not be eligible for direct payments in the Member State concerned.

6 For the purposes of this Regulation, “hemp cultivated as catch crop” means crop of hemp sown after 30 June of a given year.

7 Crops of hemp shall continue to be cultivated under normal growing conditions in accordance with local practice for at least 10 days from the date of the end of flowering so that the checks necessary for the application of this Article can be made. Hemp cultivated as catch crop shall continue to be cultivated under normal growing conditions in accordance with local practice at least until the end of the vegetation period. However, Member States may authorise hemp to be harvested after flowering has begun but before the end of the 10-day period after the end of flowering, provided that the inspectors indicate which representative parts of each plot concerned must continue to be cultivated for at least 10 days following the end of flowering for inspection purposes, in accordance with the method set out in Annex III.

Annex X to Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 is replaced by the text set out in Annex II to this Regulation.

1 By way of derogation from the second paragraph of Article 4, Member States may decide to apply some or all of the amendments made by points (3), (4) and (8) of Article 1 and, as a consequence, the amendment made by Article 2 in relation to standard ecological focus area features, with respect to aid applications relating to calendar year 2017.

2 Member States shall notify the Commission and shall inform farmers of the decision referred to in paragraph 1 and of the consequential changes to the notifications made pursuant to Article 65(1) to (4) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 639/2014 no later than 1 month after the entry into force of this Regulation.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Points (3), (4), and (8) of Article 1 and Article 2 shall apply with respect to aid applications relating to calendar years starting as from 1 January 2018. Points (5) and (6) of Article 1 shall apply with respect to aid applications relating to calendar years subsequent to calendar year 2014.