Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/591 of 30 April 2020 opening a temporary exceptional private storage aid scheme for certain cheeses and fixing the amount of aid in advance

1 This Regulation provides for a temporary exceptional private storage aid scheme for cheeses falling under CN code 0406, except for cheeses which are not suitable for further storage beyond the period of maturation referred to in Article 2.

2 The maximum volume of product per Member State subject to the private storage aid scheme referred to in paragraph 1 is set out in the Annex to this Regulation. Member States shall ensure that a system based on objective and non-discriminative criteria is in place, so that the maximum quantities allocated to them are not exceeded.

3 Save as otherwise provided for in this Regulation, the provisions of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1238 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1240 that are applicable to private storage of cheeses with a protected designation of origin or a protected geographical indication shall apply mutatis mutandis to the private storage aid scheme referred to in paragraph 1.

In order to qualify for aid under the private storage aid scheme referred to in Article 1(1), hereinafter the ‘aid’, the cheese shall be of sound and fair marketable quality and of Union origin. The cheese shall have, on the day when the storage contract starts, a minimum age corresponding to the period of maturation laid down in the product specification for the cheeses benefitting from a protected designation of origin or from a protected geographical indication under Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, or to a normal period of maturation set by Member States for the other cheeses.

1 Applications for aid may be lodged as from 7 May 2020. The last date for the submission of applications shall be 30 June 2020.

2 Applications shall relate to products that have already been placed in storage.

3 The minimum quantity per application is 0,5 tonnes.

1 The amount of aid shall be fixed as follows: 15,57 EUR per tonne of storage for fixed storage costs, 0,40 EUR per tonne per day of contractual storage.

2 Contractual storage shall end on the day preceding that of the removal from storage.

3 Aid may be granted only where the contractual storage period is between 60 and 180 days.

1 By way of derogation from Article 60(1) and (2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1240, where due to the measures put in place to address the pandemic of COVID-19, hereinafter ‘the measures’, the paying agency is not in a position to carry out in due time the checks referred to in Article 60(1) and (2) of that Regulation, the Member State concerned may: (a) extend the period referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 60(1) to carry out those checks by up to 30 days after the end of the measures; or (b) substitute those checks during the period when the measures are applicable by the use of relevant evidence, including geotagged photos or other evidence in electronic format.

2 By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of Article 60(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1240, physical checks to verify the contractual quantity shall be undertaken on a representative statistical sample of at least 5 % of the lots covering at least 5 % of the total quantities placed in storage.

3 By way of derogation from the first subparagraph of Article 60(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1240, where due to the measures the paying agency is not in a position to carry out the unannounced on-the-spot checks, the paying agency shall not be required to perform unannounced checks during the period when the measures are in place.

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