Members of the public are being invited to comment on new draft guidelines on the application of EU antitrust rules in the agricultural sector.

The new rules which come under CAP reforms allow producers to jointly commercialise olive oil, beef and veal livestock and arable crops through producer organisations. This is provided that such organisations make farmers significantly more efficient by providing supporting services, such as storage, distribution or transport services, and the quantity marketed by the organisation does not exceed certain thresholds.

The Commission's guidelines on the new rules aims to ensure that the implementation of the CAP reform improves the functioning of the food supply chain and safeguards effective competition and innovation on the markets for agricultural products.

The draft guidelines set out examples of how producer organisations can provide services that generate significant efficiencies for farmers; guidance on how to check that the volumes marketed by producer organisations do not exceed certain production volume limits; and the situations in which competition authorities may apply a safeguard clause and have joint commercialisation contracts by a producer organisation re-opened or cancelled.

National competition authorities and EU ministers of agriculture have already been consulted on the draft guidelines. The proposals will be presented again for stakeholders at a conference on 4 March, and responses to the public consultation on the guidelines can be submitted until 5 May. The Commission will then review the proposed guidelines and aim to have the final guidelines in place by the end of 2015.