More specifically, personnel responsible for control shall have the necessary technical knowledge and experience to enable them to carry out the checks specified in Council Regulations (EEC) No 3089/78 (*) and (EEC) No 2261/84 (**) and Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3061 /84(***) and (EEC) No 2677/85 (****), in particular as regards the assessment of agronomic data, technical checks on mills and processing undertakings and the scrutiny of stock records and accounts.

Where a merger by acquisition is carried out by a company which holds 90 % or more but not all of the shares and other securities conferring the right to vote at general meetings of another company, reports by the management or administrative body, reports by an independent expert or experts and the documents necessary for scrutiny shall be required only to the extent that the national law governing either the acquiring company or the company being acquired so requires.

B(3) Scrutinies planned to undertakings whose receipts or payments or the sum thereof exceeded EUR 350 000 during the EAGGF financial year.........

B(5) Scrutinies planned to undertakings whose receipts or payments, or the sum thereof were less than EUR 40 000 during the EAGGF financial year.......

DParticipation of scrutineers on-the-spot in other Member State.............................................................................Yes (*)/No.

Proposed scrutinies, if any, of undertakings whose receipts or payments, or the sum thereof, were less than EUR 40 000 during the EAGGF financial year:.

(a) the number of staff, expressed in person/years, allocated to scrutinies under Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89, by control body, and, where appropriate, region;

the rules of association of producer organisations shall contain rules enabling the producer members to scrutinise their organisation and its decisions democratically.

B(4) Scrutinies planned to undertakings whose receipts or payments or the sum thereof were in the range EUR 40 000 to EUR 350 000 during the EAGGF financial year......

(2) It is further appropriate to lay down detailed rules concerning the procedure for the reduction of the minimum number of scrutinies as provided for in the third subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 establishing a system of mutual assistance between Member States for the purpose of carrying out the scrutinies.

The decision of the first court to open proceedings should be recognised in the other Member States without those Member States having the power to scrutinise the court's decision.

The decision referred to in Article 3 shall fix the rate and number of the reduction on the minimum number of scrutinies required under Article 2(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89.

(g) an indication of the average duration of scrutinies in person/days, indicating, where practicable, the time spent on planning, preparation, execution of controls, and reporting.

Whereas Commission Regulations (EEC) No 2191/81 (3) and (EEC) No 2192/81 (4), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1333/82 (5), lay down, in Articles 6 and 5 respectively the frequency of checks in connection with the aid provided for by the said Regulations; whereas these provisions should be amended to take account of the minimum requirements regarding such checks as set out in Council Directive 77/435/EEC of 27 June 1977 on scrutiny by Member States of transactions forming part of the system of financing by the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (6);

The annual programme of scrutinies referred to in Article 10 of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 shall be drawn up in accordance with the specimen form shown in Annex III to this Regulation.

(6) When assessing requests for reduction of the amount of the refund certificate and proportional release of the relevant security, the national competent authority should, in cases of doubt, have regard in particular to the documents referred to in Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 of 21 December 1989 on scrutiny by Member States of transactions forming part of the system of financing by the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and repealing Directive 77/435/EEC(5) without prejudice to the application of the other provisions of that Regulation.

In the case of programmes involving more than one Member State, provision should be made for measures to ensure that the Member States concerned cooperate in submitting and scrutinising programmes.

In the context of its collaboration with the Member States, once the Commission has scrutinised the programmes it is to notify the Management Committee of the programmes approved and their budgets.

The information on the results of the scrutinies referred to in Article 7(2) and (4) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 shall be drawn up in accordance with the specimen form shown in Annex VII to this Regulation.

(1) In view of the deletion of the provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 concerning the reimbursement by the Community of expenditure incurred by the Member States in the framework of the scrutinies provided for by that Regulation, the rules implementing those provisions in Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1863/90 of 29 June 1990 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 on scrutiny by Member States of transactions forming part of the system of financing by the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and repealing Directive 77/435/EEC fn, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2278/96 fn, serve no further purpose.

The request for a reduction of the number of scrutinies referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 shall contain detailed information as set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

Several Member States have submitted justifications for the status of approved zones, and approved farms in non-approved zones, all of which have been scrutinised by the Commission with the assistance of experts in the Member States.

(b) training received by staff working on scrutinies under Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89, with an indication of the proportion of the staff referred to in point (a) who have received such training, and the nature of the training itself;

The methodology followed in consumer surveys carried out ad hoc by the undertakings involved or their competitors for the purposes of a merger procedure or a procedure pursuant to Regulation No 17 will usually be scrutinized with utmost care.

The Community customs offices where products are declared for release for free circulation into the Community shall scrutinise the documents submitted in support of a declaration of release for free circulation claiming reduced-tariff treatment.

The legality of a merger shall be scrutinised, as regards the part of the procedure concerning each merging company, in accordance with the law on mergers of public limited-liability companies of the Member State to which the merging company is subject.

Whereas, in order to allow the new Member States to benefit from Community part-financing of certain measures regarding the monitoring of agricultural expenditure, it is appropriate to adapt certain provisions of Council Regulations (EEC) No 4045/89 of 21 December 1989 on scrutiny by Member States of transactions forming part of the system of financing by the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund(1), (EEC) No 307/91 of 4 February 1991 on reinforcing the monitoring of certain expenditure chargeable to the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (2), (EEC) No 3508/92 of 27 November 1992 establishing an integrated administration and control system for certain Community aid schemes (3) and (EC) No 165/94 of 24 January 1994 concerning the co-financing by the Community of remote-sensing checks (4);

Sub coordinated controls shall be carried out, on the initiative or at the request either of the Commission staff or of the customs authorities making the physical checks or the competent authorities scrutinizing the payment application file or auditing the accounts ex post facto.

The security features of the document shall be scrutinised at regular intervals (every two years, if possible) regardless of any general amendments which may prove necessary if the form is falsified by forgers or counterfeiters or if protective measures relating to security features have been revealed.

Paying agencies shall scrutinize, on the basis of the payment application files and other available information, in particular on the basis of the documents relating to the export and the comments of the customs services, all the evidence in these files adduced to justify the payment of the amounts in question.

While upholding the respect for principles whereby a producer organisation must be formed on the own initiative of producers and scrutinised by the producers, it should be left up to the Member States to establish the conditions whereby other natural or legal persons are accepted as members of a producer organisation.

The decision to grant a reduction of the minimum number of scrutinies as provided for in the third subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 shall be based on an assessment of the benefits in respect of the protection of the Communities' financial interests and shall take into account the following criteria:

Mutual assistance requests made and received under Article 7 of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 shall be communicated, including the results of scrutinies carried out as a matter of priority under Article 7(2) and (4) of that Regulation, and a summary of the lists both sent and received under Article 7(2) and (3) of that Regulation.

The legality of a merger shall be scrutinised, as regards the part of the procedure concerning the completion of the merger and the formation of the SE, by the court, notary or other authority competent in the Member State of the proposed registered office of the SE to scrutinise that aspect of the legality of mergers of public limited-liability companies.

The information on the requests and the results of the scrutinies referred to in Article 7(2) and (4) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89, to be communicated to the Commission in quarterly reports as provided for in the second subparagraph of Article 7(4) of that Regulation, shall be drawn up in accordance with the specimen form shown in Annex VIII to this Regulation.

Information shall be provided on the execution of the programme of scrutinies for the period ending on 30 June preceding the closing date for submission of the report, as referred to in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89, including the following points, both in total and broken down by control body (where more than one carries out controls under that Regulation):

The paying agency within the meaning of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 which is responsible for the payment of the premium shall scrutinize the aid applications on the basis of the payment files and other available information, paying particular attention to the documents relating to the export and the comments of the competent control authorities and shall check whether the animal passports have been surrendered in accordance with paragraph 2.

If the law of a Member State to which a merging company is subject provides for a procedure to scrutinise and amend the share-exchange ratio, or a procedure to compensate minority shareholders, without preventing the registration of the merger, such procedures shall only apply if the other merging companies situated in Member States which do not provide for such procedure explicitly accept, when approving the draft terms of the merger in accordance with Article 23(1), the possibility for the shareholders of that merging company to have recourse to such procedure.

(2) Scrutiny of the request has shown that the amendments proposed are not minor.

Consumer organisations, however, have voiced some concern that the introduction of comitology may reduce the overall transparency of the process, where authorisations will no longer be scrutinised and debated to the same extent by the European Parliament.

'Scrutiny shall cover a period of at least 12 months ending during the previous scrutiny period;

It shall apply with effect from the 1995/96 scrutiny period.

Where scrutiny of an undertaking on the list takes place, the requested Member State that carried out the scrutiny shall inform the requesting Member State of the results of that scrutiny at the latest three months after the end of the scrutiny period.

Such scrutiny shall be carried out at least once every 12 months.

Whereas the documents used as a basis for such scrutiny should be determined in such a way as to enable a full scrutiny to be carried out;

the mobilization of means intended to improve the quality of scrutiny.

The scrutiny request shall be met not later than six months after its receipt;

The record should be open to scrutiny by the competent authority at all times.

Whereas the departments carrying out scrutiny pursuant to this Regulation must be organized independently of the departments carrying out scrutiny prior to payment;

When they are presented for slaughter, they require close scrutiny by a veterinarian.