[ EN | 22.12.2011 Official Journal of the European Union L 341/33 COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 1368/2011 of 21 December 2011 amending Regulation (EC) No 1121/2009 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 as regards the support schemes for farmers provided for in Titles IV and V thereof, and Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 as regards cross-compliance, modulation and the integrated administration and control system, under the direct support schemes for farmers provided for in that Regulation, as well as for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 as regards cross-compliance under the support scheme provided for the wine sector THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 of 19 January 2009 establishing common rules for direct support schemes for farmers under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 247/2006, (EC) No 378/2007 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 17822003 (1), and in particular points (c), (), and (n) of Article 142, Whereas: (1) On the basis of the experience gained and in particular the improvements made in the supporting systems used by the national administrations when implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 1121/2009 (3 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 (%) it is appropriate to improve and simplify these two Regu- lations as regards the administration of direct payments and the related controls. (20 In accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 16(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009, Member States may use information available in the computerised database of the identification and regis- tration system of bovine animals for an aid application for bovine animals. It is appropriate to introduce a clari- fication on the start of the retention period applicable pursuant to Article 61 of Regulation (EC) No 1121/2009 where Member States have made use of this possibility. In addition, these Member States should, for the sake of simplification, be enabled to replace the submission of an application provided for in Article 62 of that Regulation by the submission of a statement of participation. Regu- lation (EC) No 1121/2009 should therefore be amended accordingly. (3)  Certain definitions set out in Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 should be wupdated. Furthermore, the separate soft fruit payment provided for in Article 129 of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 will be introduced as from 2012. Hence, the definition of area-related aid schemes should be amended accordingly and provision should be made for an appropriate application procedure. () OJ L 30, 31.1.2009, p. 16. () OJ L 316, 2.12.2009, p. 27. (’) OJ L 316, 2.12.2009, p. 65. ) According to Article 11(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009, Member States have to determine a latest date for submitting the single application. After submission of the single application, farmers have the possibility to amend their application within the deadlines set in Article 14(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009. Administrative controls and on-the-spot checks depend on the receipt of final applications by Member States. Member States choosing to set the latest date for the submission of applications at an earlier date than the latest dates established in Article 11(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 should also be able to start and finalise controls earlier. These Member States should therefore be allowed to establish a latest date for the amendments to the single application at an earlier date than the latest date established in Article 14(2). However, to give farmers sufficient time to notify possible changes, that date should not be earlier than 15 days after the latest date fixed by Member States for the submission of the single appli- cation. Due to the introduction of area-related support decoupled from production, the on-the-spot checks are in many cases limited to the verification of the size and the eligibility status of the area concerned. Those checks are to a large extent performed by remote sensing. In parallel, Member States regularly update their identifi- cation system for agricultural parcels. The methodology used for such updates may be similar to the performance of on-the-spot checks by means of remote sensing. Therefore, in a spirit of simplification and with a view to reducing administrative costs, it is appropriate to allow Member States performing a systematic update of the identification systems for agricultural parcels to use the results thereof as a replacement of part of the traditional on-the-spot checks. To avoid creating any additional risk for irregular payments, criteria to be fulfilled by management and control systems in the Member States opting for this possibility should be defined. Those criteria should in particular address the intervals and the coverage of the update, any particulars on the ortho-images used, the required quality of the identifi- cation system for agricultural parcels and the maximum yearly error rate. The requirement for bovine animals in a farm to comply with Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and the Council of 17 July 2000 establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No