13.4.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 105/1 II (Non-legislative acts) REGULATIONS COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 335/2013 of 12 April 2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, (3) Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (1), and in particular Article 91 thereof, Whereas: (1)  Commission Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006 () lays down detailed rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005. (20 On 12 October 2011 the Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament () and of the Council on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Devel- opment (EAFRD) (}). That proposal introduces a new strategy for rural development based on the policy options outlined in the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on ‘The CAP towards 2020: meeting the food, natural resources and territorial chal- lenges of the future’(*) and on the wide-ranging discussion that followed it. When adopted, the proposal will bring substantial changes to rural development policy, in particular with regard to the content of a number of measures provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 and included in the rural development (6) programmes of the Member States. ® () O] L 368, 23.12.2006, p. 15. () COM(2011) 627 final/3, 12.10.2011. (4 COM(2010) 672 final, 18.11.2010. It is important to ensure that the EAFRD resources of the programming  period  following  the  2007-13 programming period are devoted, as far as possible, to implement that new strategy for rural development. A period of overlapping application of rural development programmes and the corresponding legal provisions of the 2007-13 programming period and those of the programming period following it is inevitable. Consequently, provision should be made to ensure that measures established under the 2007-13 programming period are applied under such conditions that they do not take up a disproportionate share of the financial resources of the following programming period. It should therefore be provided that Member States should not undertake new legal commitments to bene- ficiaries for multiannual measures which may extend well into the following programming period and which, as a result of the new strategy for rural development, are likely to be discontinued or substantially modified. Article 27(12) and Article 32a of Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006 limit the extension of the duration of ongoing agri-environment, animal welfare or forest-envi- ronmental commitments to the end of the premium period to which the 2013 payment claim refers. In order to ensure that any delays in the process of submission and approval of the new rural development programmes do not have a negative effect on the continuity of the implementation of the policy, the possi- bility to extend those commitments should be prolonged to the end of the premium period to which the 2014 payment claim refers. As the end of the 2007-13 programming period approaches, the procedural burden for Member States making changes to rural development programmes should be reduced, while maintaining an appropriate level of assessment by the Commission. Therefore, Member States should have enhanced possibilities to transfer, in a timely manner, and by a notification