S.L. 545.9 Art. 8Economic operators.

(1) Any economic operator on which the Regulator imposes stockholding obligations in order to fulfil its obligations under regulation 3 shall have the right to delegate those obligations at least in part and at the choice of the economic operator, but only to:

(a) if applicable, to the CSE; and, or

(b) one or more other CSEs of other Member States which have in advance declared themselves willing to hold such stocks, provided that such delegations have been authorised in advance both by the Minister and by all Member States within which territories the stocks shall be held;

(c) other economic operators which have surplus stocks or available stockholding capacity outside of the territory of Malta and when the stocks are held within the Community on account of the Minister, provided that such delegation has been authorised in advance both by the Minister and by all Member States within which territories the stocks shall be held; and, or

(d) other economic operators which have surplus stocks or available stockholding capacity within Malta, provided that such delegation has been communicated in advance to the Regulator. The Regulator may impose limits or conditions on such delegations.

(2) Obligations delegated in accordance with sub-regulation (1)(c) and (d) may not be sub-delegated. Any change to or extension of a delegation referred to in paragraphs (b) and (c) shall only take effect if authorised in advance by the Minister and by all Member States within which territories the stocks shall be held and which authorised the delegation. Any change to or extension of a delegation referred to in paragraph (d) shall be treated as a new delegation.

(3) The Regulator may restrict the delegation rights of the economic operators on which it imposes or has imposed stockholding obligations:

Provided that the Regulator may not limit the delegation rights of an economic operator to amounts corresponding to less than 10% of the stockholding obligation imposed on it, unless the Minister has set up a CSE: Provided also that an economic operator shall have the right to delegate at least 10% of the stockholding obligation imposed on it to such CSE, which shall accept the delegation to it in respect such amount: Provided further that the minimum percentage referred to in this sub-regulation shall be increased from 10% to 30% by 31 December 2017.

(4) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-regulations (1) and (3), the Minister may impose an obligation on an economic operator to delegate at least part of its stockholding obligation to the CSE, if applicable, by means of an order published in the Gazette.

(5) The Regulator shall inform economic operators of the modalities to be used to calculate the stockholding obligations imposed on them no later than two hundred days prior to the start of the period to which the obligation in question relates. Economic operators shall exercise their right to delegate stockholding obligations to CSEs as applicable no later than one hundred and seventy days prior to the start of the period to which the obligation in question relates. Where economic operators are informed less than two hundred days before the commencement of the period to which the stockholding obligation relates, they may exercise their right to delegate that obligation at any time.