In order to be eligible, the applicants must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in an EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- be eligible organisations or bodies as referred to in Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014:
- trade or inter-trade organisations, established in a Member State and representative of the sector or sectors concerned in that Member State, and in particular the interbranch organisations as referred to in Article 157 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and groups as defined in point 2 of paragraph 1 of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, provided that they are representative for the name protected under the latter Regulation which is covered by that programme
- producer organisations or associations of producer organisations, as referred to in Articles 152 and 156 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 that have been recognised by a Member State or
- agri-food sector bodies the objective and activity of which is to provide information on, and to promote agricultural products and which have been entrusted, by the Member State concerned, with a clearly defined public service mission in this area; those bodies must have been legally established in the Member State in question at least two years prior to the date of the call for proposals referred to in Article 8(2).
The above-mentioned proposing organisations may submit a proposal provided that they are also representative of the sector or product concerned by the proposal, complying with conditions set out in Articles 1(1) or 1(2) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1829 of 23 April 2015, namely:
- trade or inter-trade organisation, established in a Member State or at EU level, as referred to in Article 7(1)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 respectively, are deemed to be representative of the sector concerned by the programme:
- where it accounts for at least 50% as a proportion of the number of producers, or 50% of the volume or value of marketable production of the product(s) or sector concerned, in the Member State concerned or at EU level, or
- where it is an interbranch organisation recognised by the Member State in accordance with Article 158 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council or with Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council
- a group as defined in paragraph 1 of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council and referred to in Article 7(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014, are deemed to be representative of the name protected under Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 and covered by the programme, where it accounts for at least 50% of the volume or value of marketable production of the product(s) whose name is protected
- a producer organisation or an association of producer organisations as referred to in Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1144/2014 are deemed to be representative of the product(s) or sector concerned by the programme where it is recognised by the Member State in accordance with Articles 154 or 156 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or with Article 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013
Lower representativeness thresholds than 50% may be accepted if the proposing organisation demonstrates in the submitted proposal that there are specific circumstances, including the evidence on the structure of the market, which would justify treating the proposing organisation as representative of the product(s) or sector concerned.