EN Official Journal of the European Union L 86/7

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 286/2013

of 22 March 2013

on transitional measures to be adopted in respect of trade in agricultural products on the occasion of the accession of Croatia

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to the Treaty of Accession of Croatia, and in particular Article 3(4) thereof,

Having regard to the Act of Accession of Croatia, and in particular Article 41 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Transitional measures should be adopted in order to avoid the risk of deflection of trade, affecting the common organisation of agricultural markets due to the accession of Croatia to the European Union on 1 July 2013.

(2) Trade deflections liable to disrupt the market organisations often involve products moved artificially with a view to benefit from enlargement of the Union and do not form part of the normal stocks of the acceding State concerned. Accumulation of such surplus quantities can also give rise to distortion of competition likely to affect the proper functioning of the common organisation of the markets. Surplus stocks may also result from national production. Provisions should, therefore, be made for effective, proportionate, and deterrent charges at the amount of the difference between import duties applicable in Croatia before accession and the import duties applicable in the Union increased with 20 %, to be levied on surplus stocks in Croatia.

(3) It is necessary to prevent goods in respect of which export refunds were paid before 1 July 2013 from benefiting from a second export refund when exported to third countries after 30 June 2013.

(4) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Scope

This Regulation shall apply to products set out in the Annex.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation ‘products’ means agricultural products and/or goods not included in Annex I to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Article 3

Charges on holders of products in free circulation

1. Without prejudice to Section 3(a) of Annex IV to the Act of Accession, and where stricter legislation does not apply at national level, Croatia shall levy charges on holders of surplus stocks at 1 July 2013 of products in free circulation.

2. In order to determine the surplus stock of each holder, Croatia shall take into account:

(a) averages of stocks available in the period from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013;

(b) the pattern of trade in the period from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013;

(c) the circumstances in which stocks were built up.

The notion ‘surplus stocks’ applies to products imported into or originating from Croatia and to such products outside the customs territory of Croatia but intended for the market in Croatia.

The recording of the stocks shall be performed on the basis of the Combined Nomenclature applicable on 1 July 2013.

3. The amount of the charge referred to in paragraph 1 shall, for each product concerned, be equal to the amount by which the import duty applicable in the Union in accordance with Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 (1), including any applicable additional duty on 30 June 2013, exceeds the import duty applicable in Croatia on that date, plus 20 % of that amount. The revenue of the charge collected by national authorities shall be assigned to the national budget of Croatia.

4. Croatia shall, without delay, carry out an inventory of stocks available as on 1 July 2013. To this end, it shall use a system for identifying holders of surplus stocks based on a risk analysis taking account of the following criteria:

(a) type of activity of the holder;

(b) capacity of storage facilities;

(c) level of activity.

Croatia shall notify the Commission any measures it has implemented prior to its accession, to avoid any speculative stock-piling due to the accession, in particular to monitor and track down import flows for products with high risk of stock-piling, by 1 July 2013.

Croatia shall notify the Commission of the quantity of products in surplus stocks, except of those quantities in public stocks as referred to in Article 4, by 31 March 2014.

5. Where a CN code covers products for which the import duty referred to in paragraph 3 is not the same, the inventory of stocks as referred to in paragraph 4 shall be made for each product or group of products subject to a different import duty.

Article 4

Census of public stocks

By 1 October 2013 at the latest, Croatia shall communicate the list and the quantities of goods which are in its public stocks as referred to in Section 3 of Annex IV to the Act of Accession.

Article 5

National security stocks

The stocks as referred to in Article 3(4) and Article 4 shall not include national security stocks which may possibly have been constituted by Croatia. Croatia shall inform the Commission of all changes made to national security stocks together with the conditions governing the changes for the purposes of establishing the Union supply balance.

Article 6

Measures in the event of non-payment of charges

If any Member State suspects that the charges provided for in Article 3 have not been paid in respect of a product, it shall inform Croatia so as to enable it to take appropriate measures.

Article 7

Proof of non-payment of refunds

Products for which the declaration of export to third countries is accepted by Croatia during the period from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 may qualify for an export refund if such refund has been fixed in accordance with Article 164 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 (2) provided that it is established that no export refund has already been paid in respect of those products or their constituents.

Article 8

No double payment of market support measures

Any product for which an export refund has been paid shall not be eligible for any intervention measure or aid as laid down in Article 3 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 (3).

Article 9

Entry into force and applicability

This Regulation shall enter into force subject to and on the date of the entry into force of the Treaty of Accession of Croatia.

It shall apply until 30 June 2015.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 22 March 2013. For the Commission The President José Manuel BARROSO

(1) OJ L 256, 7.9.1987, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 209, 11.8.2005, p. 1.