23.12.2006 Official Journal of the European Union L 368/99 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1981/2006 of 22 December 2006 on detailed rules for the implementation of Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the Community reference laboratory for genetically modified organisms (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2003 on genetically modified food and feed ('), and in particular Article 32, fifth sub-paragraph, thereof, Whereas: Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 provides for a Community reference laboratory (CRL) to carry out certain duties and tasks set out in that Regulation. It also provides that the CRL is to be assisted by national reference laboratories. Methods of detection and identification which have to be tested and validated by the CRL and samples and control samples have to meet the requirements laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 641/2004 of 6 April 2004 on detailed rules for the implementation of Regu- lation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the application for the authorisation of new genetically modified food and feed, the notification of existing products and adven- titious or technically unavoidable presence of genetically modified material which has benefited from a favourable risk evaluation (?). It is necessary to provide detailed rules for implementing Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. The financial contribution to be paid by applicants in accordance with Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 should be used only towards supporting the costs of the duties and tasks as set out in the Annex to that Regulation. The CRL should be authorised () O] L 268, 18.10.2003, p. 1. () O] L 102, 7.4.2004, p. 14. to charge a financial contribution to applicants for new authorisations, for renewal of authorisations and in the case of modification of authorisations where appropriate. The determination of the amount of the financial contri- bution should take into account the burden of work to be carried out by the CRL in each case, depending on the level of method testing and validation already carried out prior to the submission of the application for authori- sation. Applicants should be encouraged to provide data that refer to modules which have already been validated and published by the CRL in order to facilitate both the establishment of the application dossier and the vali- dation of the detection method. A financial contribution should be levied on a flat-rate basis in order to contribute to supporting the costs incurred in the comprehensive data analysis and in- house laboratory verification of the method and samples received to be carried out by the CRL in all cases where a new method is submitted. An additional financial contribution should be charged to applicants where the validation of the proposed method requires the performance of a collaborative study involving national reference laboratories in order to comply with the criteria referred to in Annex I of Regu- lation (EC) No 641/2004. The amount of the financial contributions should cover the costs directly associated with the validation tasks to be performed. Those include in particular the manpower, the reagents and other associated disposable material, the distribution of material to members of the European Network of GMO laboratories (ENGL) where appropriate and the administrative costs. They should be calculated on the basis of the experience gained by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre in carrying out vali- dations of detection methods, including collaboration with members of the ENGL where appropriate, and should not exceed the actual costs incurred in carrying out that validation.