No L 376/34 Official Journal of the European' Communities 31.12. 88 COMMISSION REGULATION (EEC) No 4263/88 of 21 December 1988 amending Regulation (EEC) No 1726/70 on the procedure for granting the premium for leaf tobacco ' THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard' to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 727/70 of 21 April 1970 on the common organization of the market in raw tobacco (!), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2267/88 (?), and in particular Article 3 (3) thereof, Whereas Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 727/70 specifies, -among other requirements for the granting of the premium, that the purchaser shall have concluded a contract with the producer; whereas Community rules should be laid down which define the nature of such contracts; whereas the relevant requirements concerning the cultivation contract are set out in Article 2b of Commission Regulation (EEC) No0.1726/70 (3), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2824/88 (4); Whereas it has been found that the wording of cultivation contracts varies from one producer Member State to another; whereas for the sake of more efficient monitoring of the application of the Community provisions, in particular those designed to ensure that the purchaser pays the producer a price which is at least equal to that required for entitlement to the premium, a model cultivation contract should be adopted which sets out all the particulars which must be included therein; whereas, since there will be one model contract for ~ the whole Community, it may be termed ‘European cultivation contract (raw tobacco)’; Whereas in order also to ensure the greatest uniformity of application in the Member States of certain requirements as to drying, grading and verification of execution of the contract these should also be incorporated in the model contract; - Whereas additions may be made to the model contract to take account of production requirements specific to certain Member States or areas thereof; Whereas Article 2b of Regulation (EEC) No 1726/70 stipulates that cultivation declarations and contracts must be concluded before 1 May and registered before 1 July of the (1) OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 1. (2) O] No L 199, 26. 7. 1988, p. 18. (3) OJ No L 191, 27. 8. 1970, p. 1. (*) O] No L 254, 14. 9. 1988, p. 9. year in which they take effect; whereas it has emerged that these periods do not take proper account of cultivation practice; whereas a later period should therefore apply in each case; Whereas the measures provided for in.this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Tobacco, ' : HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Regulation (EEC) No 1726/70 -is hereby amended as follows: ' 1. Article 2b is replaced by the following ‘Article 2b 1.  The cultivation contract referred to in Article 2 (2) (c) shall contain at least the clauses set out as points 1 to 12 in the Annex and shall be concluded between the following parties: (a) a purchaser of leaf tobacco who will subject that tobacco to first processing and market preparation, hereinafter “the purchaser”, and (b) a tobacco producer or associated producers, hereinafter “the vendor”. 2.  Adeclaration of cultivation signed by an individual producer or associated producers as referred to in Article 3 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 727/70 shall be treated as a cultivation contract. Such declaration shall be drawn up by variety, for a given area and shall include a requirement whereby an average density of tobacco plants per hectare approved by the contracting parties must be attained. 3. The cultivation contract may be for one or more years. It must be concluded, except in cases of force majeure, before 1-June of the year in which it takes effect. ' Member States shall notify the Commission of each case of force majeure. ' 4.  The contract must specify: (a) the basic contract price;