11. 1. 2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L 6/19 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 52/2000 of 10 January 2000 on the rate of interest to be used for calculating the costs of financing intervention measures comprising buying-in, storage and disposal THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 188378 of 2 August 1978 laying down general rules for the financing of interventions by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guar- antee Fund (EAGGF), Guarantee Section (), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1259/96 (3), and in particular Article 5 thereof, Whereas: (1)  Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 411/88 of 12 February 1988 on the method and the rate of interest to be used for calculating the costs of financing intervention measures comprising buying-in, storage and disposal (%), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2623/1999 (%), lays down that the uniform interest rate used for calculating the costs of financing intervention measures is to correspond to the three months' and twelve months' forward Euribor rates with a weighting of one third and two thirds respectively; 2)  the Commission fixes this rate before the beginning of each EAGGF Guarantee Section accounting year on the basis of the rates recorded in the six months preceding fixing; (3)  Article 4(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 411/88 lays down that if the rate of interest costs borne by a Member State is lower for at least six months than the uniform interest rate fixed for the Community a specific interest rate is to be fixed for that Member State; the Member State noti- fied these costs to the Commission before the end of the accounting year; where no costs are notified by a Member State, the rate to be applied is determined on the basis of the reference interest rates set out in the Annex to the said Regulation; (4)  the interest rates for the 2000 accounting year must be set, in line with those provisions; (5)  the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the EAGGF Committee, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 For expenditure incurred during the 2000 EAGGF Guarantee Section accounting year: 1. the interest rate referred to in Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 411/88 shall be 2,9 %; 2. the specific interest rate referred to in Article 4 of Regula- tion (EEC) No 411/88 shall be 2,6 % for Ireland, and 2,7 % for Austria. Article 2 This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publica- tion in the Official Journal of the European Communities. It shall apply from 1 October 1999. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 10 January 2000. () O] L 216, 5.8.1978, p. 1 () O] L 163, 2.7.1996, p. 10 () O] L 40, 13.2.1988, p. 25 () O] L 318, 11.12.1999, p. 14. For the Commission Franz FISCHLER Member of the Commission