No L 24/6 Official Jourrial of the European Commumtles 29. 1. %4 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 165/94 of 24 January 1994 concerning the co-financing by the Community of remote sensing checks and amending Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92 establishing an integrated administration and control system for certain Community aid schemes THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia- ment (%), Whereas Article 8 (4) of Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92 () provides that Member States may use remote sensing to determine the area of agricultural parcels, identify crops and verify their status; Whereas, on account of its novelty and complexity, remote sensing is giving rise to further major expenditure which should be covered partly out of Community funds in order to enable all Member States who so wish to update their control techniques more rapidly ; whereas, however, provision should be made for co-financing which is limited in time; Whereas the co-financing must be granted only for tech- niques applied and may not result in the charging to the general budget of the European Communities of purely administrative expenditure which, under Article 1 (4) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (%), is chargeable to national budgets; Whereas provision should be made for the Commission to be consulted on the technical and financial aspects of projects drawn up by the Member States and on the award of contracts in order to ensure satisfactory uniformity between Member States ; . Whereas since the funds available are limited, it is essen- tial that provision be made for their fajr distribution among the Member States on the basis of a maximum rate of co-financing and a distribution scale ; Whereas experience has shown that negotiations cen- tralized at Community level, for the purchase of the necessary satellite pictures, and the joint management of archive pictures, open up opportunities which are inacces- * sible to individual Member States ; Whereas remote sensing is undergoing constant develop- ment ; whereas, moreover, the Member States’ require- () OJ No C 282, 20. 10. 1993, p. 14. () OJ No C 20, 24. 1. 1994, () OJ No L 355, 5. 12. 1992, p () OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13 Regulanon as last amended by Regulauon (EEC) No 2048/88 (O] No L 185, 15. 7. 1988, p. 1). ments regarding control of agricultural areas have not yet all been identified, expressed or met; whereas provision should therefore be made for the possibility of financing specific tests related to the control requirements ; Whereas it is essential, for the satisfactory management of the funds, to have currency exchange rates which remain fixed throughout the calendar year; Whereas steps should be taken to eliminate all ambiguity in Article 10 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92 between investment expenditure linked with the establishment of the integrated system and the costs of the annual checks carried out by aerial or satellite remote sensing, HAS ADOPTED THIS RBGUI.ATION: Article 1 1. The Community shall contribute towards the costs incurred by the Member States, in response to an annual request to the Commission, for the use of aerial or satel- lite remote sensing during checks on agricultural areas pursuant to Article 8 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70. Without prejudice to Article 1 (4) of that Regulation, for the purposes of this Regulation ‘technical costs’ means the costs of : — acquiring satellite pictures or aerial photographs, — the photo-interpretation of the above, — the processing of documents or the use of techniques for locating parcels shown in applications for - assis- tance, for the purpose of surveying the areas under crops and measuring the areas declared. 2. The co-financing referred to in this Article may only be granted by calendar year for a period of five consecu- tive years as from the implementation of this Regulation. It shall be granted within the limit of the appropriations allocated for this purpose in the Community budget and may not exceed 50 % of the actual expenditure incurred by the Member State concerned in respect of the relevant budget year. The appropriations available shall be distributed among the Member States in accordance with the scale shown in the Annex, less, where appropriate, expenditure in respect of the costs and work referred to in Article 2. Appropria- tions in respect of which no application has been made may be re-used in accordance with Article 2, or redistributed, without taking account of the scale, among the Member States which satisfy the requnrements laid down by this Regulation.