ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES 
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COM (83) 614 
 
 
 
 
Vol. 1983/0 226 
  
 
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concernant l'ouverture au public des archives historiques de la Communauté économique 
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In accordance with Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 354/83 of 1 February 1983 
concerning the opening to the public of the historical archives of the European Econom ic 
Communit y and the European Atom ic Energy Communit y (OJ L 43, 15.2.1983, p. 1), as 
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file have been declassified in conformity with Article 5 of the aforementioned regulation.  
In Übereinstimmung mit der Verordnung (EWG, Euratom) Nr. 354/83 des Rates vom  1. 
Februar 1983 über die Freigabe der historischen Archive der Europäischen  
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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
C O M (83) 614 final
Brussels, 2 0  O ctober 1983
Proposal for a  
COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC)
opening, allocating a n d  providing for the administration of  
C o m m u n ity  tariff quotas for prepared or preserved sardines  
falling within subheading 16.04 D  of the C o m m o n  C u stom s  
Tariff a n d  originating in M orocco (1984)
(submitted to the Council b y  the C om m ission)
COM(83) 614 final

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1. The 1978 Agreement between the Community and Morocco provides that 
prepared and preserved sardines originating in this country may be 
admitted duty free into the Community on conditions that certain 
minimum prices are respected. The periods and the technical rules for 
application of this system must be fixed by an exchange of letters between 
the contracting parties. Since this exchange of letters has never taken 
place, the Community has, from 1  January 1978 applied a Community 
tariff quota regime which takes the interests involved into account and 
which enables the provisions of the 1978 Agreement relating to prepared 
and preserved sardines to operate.
2. Consequently the Commission is proposing that the Council should extend 
the tariff quota regime and should therefore approve the attached proposal 
for Regulation opening, allocating and providing for the administration of 
Community tariff quotas of 14 000 tonnes duty free and 6 000 tonnes at a 
duty-rate of 10% in respect of prepared and preserved sardines falling 
within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs Tariff originating in 
Morocco.
These tariff quotas shall apply from 1  January to 31 December 1984.
This is the subject of the annexed proposal.
3. The proposal for Regulation opening this tariff quotas provides - as is 
customary -for the division of each of the quota volumes into two 
instalments, the first being allocated among the Member States as quota 
shares, the second being held as a reserve.
The allocation of the volume of the first instalment of the quota is to be 
based on the rules generally applied. These involve calculating each 
Member State's total imports for the last three years as a proportion of 
total Community imports during the same period, and applying for each 
Member State the percentage thus obtained to the volume of the first 
instalment.

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IMPORTATION OF PREPARED AND CONSERVED SARDINES 
ORIGINATING IN MOROCCO
M e m b e r
S t a t e s(in tonnes)
1978 1979 1980 1981 1982
BX 1  335 1  190 1  310 892 1  210
DK 105 3 4 29 41
D 1  626 2 022 1  335 1  576 1  371
GR 578 196 0 375 60
F 6 603 7 100 8 020 7 417 7 613
IRL 42 5 1 0 0
IT 88 33 38 109 5
UK 1  531 3 173 2 971 3 527 1  478
C.E. 11 908 13 722 13 679 13 925 11 778

Proposal for a
COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC)
opening, allocating and providing for the administration of Community tariff quotas for 
prepared or preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs 
Tariff and originating in Morocco (1 9 8 4 )
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 113 
thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,reference to the statistics for imports from Morocco over 
a representative reference period and also to the economic 
outlook for the quota period in question;
Whereas, during the last three years for which statistics 
are available, the corresponding imports into each of the 
Member States represent the following percentages of the 
imports into the Community from Morocco of the 
products concerned:
Whereas the Cooperation Agreement between the 
Community and Morocco ('), supplemented by Council 
Regulation (EEC) No 3511/81 of 3 December 1981 
laying down the arrangements applicable to trade 
between Greece and Morocco (2), provides that prepared 
and preserved sardines falling within subheading 16.04 D 
of the Common Customs Tariff ^nd originating in 
Morocco, may be imported into the Community free of 
duty; whereas the detailed arrangements must be fixed by 
an exchange of letters between the Community and 
Morocco; whereas, since this exchange of letters has not 
yet taken place, it is advisable to renew until 31 December 
1984 the Community arrangements which were applied 
in 1983; whereas it is advisable to open two Community 
tariff quotas for importations into the Community of the 
products in question, one duty-free tariff quota of 14 000 
tonnes and the other of 6 000 tonnes at a rate of duty of 
10%; whereas these tariff quotas are to apply from 
1  January 198 4 until eithei the conclusion of the 
exchange of letters provided for in Article 19 of the 
Cooperation Agreement between the Community and 
Morocco, or until such time as Community arrangements 
for imports of the products in question are applied but 
until 31 December 1984 at the latest;
Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure for all 
Community importers equal and uninterrupted access 
to the abovementioned quotas and uninterrupted 
application of the rates laid down for these quotas to all 
imports of the products concerned into all Member States 
until the quotas have been used up; whereas, having 
regard to the principles mentioned above, the 
Community nature of the quotas can be respected by 
allocating the Community tariff quotas among the 
Member States; whereas, in order to reflect as ac. jrately 
as possible the true trend of the market in the products in 
question, such allocation should be in proportion to the 
requirements of the Member States, calculated byMember Slates
Benelux
Denmark
Germany
Greece
France
Ireland
Italy
United Kingdom8-67
0-02
14-73
1-43
51-74
0-04
0-24
23-131980
9-58
0-03
9-76
0-00
58-63
0-01
0-27
21-721981
6-41
.0-21
11-31
2-69
53-28
0-00
0-78
25-321982
10.27  
0.35  
11.64  
0.51  
64 .64
0.00
0.04
12.55
Whereas, in view of these factors and of the estimates 
submitted by certain Member States initial shares may be 
fixed approximately at the following percentages:
Benelux 8 . 7
Denmark 0 .2
Germany 10.9  
1 .1 Greece
France58.3
0 .1Ireland
Italy 0.4
United Kingdom'20.3
(') OJ No L 264, 27. 9. 1978, p. 2. 
(■) OJ No l. 358, 3. 12. 1981, p. 1.Whereas, in order to take into account import trends for 
the products concerned in the various Member States, 
each quota should be divided into two instalments, the 
first being shared among the Member States and the 
second constituting a reserve to cover at a later date the 
requirements of the Member States which have used up 
their initial quota shares; whereas, in order to give 
importers in each Member State a certain degree of 
security, the first instalment of the Community quotas 
should, under the circumstances, be fixed at 70% 
respectively of the quota volumes;
Whereas, the Member States’  initial shares may be used up 
at different times; whereas, in order to take this fact into

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account and avoid any break in continuity, any Member 
State which has almost used up its initial quota shares 
should draw an additional share from the corresponding 
reserve; whereas this must be done by each Member State 
as and when each of its additional shares is almost used 
up, and repeated as many times as the reserve allows; 
whereas the initial and additional shares must be valid 
until the end of the quota period; whereas this method of 
administration requires close cooperation between the 
Member States and the Commission and the latter must 
be in a position to monitor the extent to which the quota 
amounts have been used up and to inform Member States 
thereof;
Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a 
substantial quantity remains unused in any Member 
State, it is essential that that Member State should return 
a significant proportion to the corresponding reserve to 
prevent a part of any tariff quota from remaining unused 
in one Member State when it could be used in others;
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of 
the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg 
are united within and jointly represented by the Benelux 
Economic Union, any operation relating to the 
administration of the quota shares allocated to that 
economic union may be carried out by any of its 
members,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
1. From 1  January 198 4 until the conclusion of the 
exchange of letters referred to in Article 19 of the 
Cooperation Agreement between, the Community and 
Morocco, until such time as Community imporr 
arrangements are applied or until 31 December 198 4, 
whichever shall be the earliest, a duty-free Community 
tariff quota of 14 000 tonnes shall be opened, for imports 
into the Community of prepared or preserved sardines 
falling within subheading 16.04 D of the Common 
Customs Tariff and originating in Morocco.
2. From 1 January 198 4U ntil either the conclusion of 
the exchange of letters referred to in Article 19 of the 
Cooperation Agreement between the Community and 
Morocco, or until such time as Community import 
arrangements are applied but until 31 December 1984 at 
the latest, a Community tariff quota of 6 000 tonnes at a 
duty rate of 10% shall be opened, for imports into the 
Community, of prepared or preserved sardines falling 
within subheading 16.04 D of the Common Customs 
Tariff and originating in Morocco.
3. Within the limits of these tariff quotas, Greece shall 
apply duties calculated in accordance with the relevantprovisions in the 1979 Act of Accession and Regulation 
(EEC) No 3511/81.
Article 2
1. The tariff quotas laid down in Article 1  shall be 
divided into two instalments.
2. A first instalment of each quota shall be shared 
among the Member States; the respective shares which, 
subject to Article 5, shall be valid until the end of the 
period specified in Article 1  shall be as follows:
(tonnes)
Member States Article 1(1) Article 1  (2)
Benelux 850 566
Denmark 2 0 1 0
Germany 1070 458
Greece 110 4 6
France 5710 2  448
Ireland 1 0 4
Italy 4 0 1 6
United Kingdom 1990 852
9800 4  200
3. The second instalment ofeach quota, i.e. 4 200and 
1 800 tonnes respectively, shall constitute corresponding 
reserves.
Article 3
1. If 90 % or more of a Member State’s initial share as 
specified in Article 2 (2), or 90 % of that share minus the 
portion returned to the corresponding reserve where 
Article 5 has been applied, has been used up, then, to the 
extent permitted by the amount of the reserve, that 
Member State shall forthwith, by notifying the 
Commission, draw a second share equal to 10% of its 
initial share, rounded up where necessary to the next 
unit.
2. If, after one of its initial shares has been used up, 
90 % or more of the second share drawn by a Member 
State has been used up, then that Member State shall, in 
accordance with the conditions laid down in paragraph 1, 
draw a third share equal to 5%  of its initial share, 
rounded up where necessary to the next unit.
3. If, after its second share has been used up, 90% or 
more of the third share drawn by a Member State has been 
used up, that Member State shall, in accordance with the

-3-
conditions laid down in paragraph 1, draw a fourth share 
equal to the third.
This process shall continue until the reserve is used up.
4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1,2 and 3, a 
Member State may draw shares smaller than those fixed 
in those paragraphs if there is reason to believe that they 
might not be used up. It shall inform the Commission of 
its reasons for applying this paragraph.
Article 4
Each of the additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3 
shall he valid until the end of the period laid down in 
Article 1.
Article 5
The Member States shall return to the reserve, not later 
than 1  October 198 4 _  such unused portion of their initial 
share as, on 15 September 198 \ is in excess of 20% of 
the initial volume. They may return a larger quantity if 
there are grounds for believing that this quantity may not 
be used.
The Member States shall notify the Commission, not later 
than 1  October 198^ of the total quantities of the 
products in question imported up to 15 September 1984 
and charged against the tariff quota and of any quantity 
of the initial shares returned to the reserve.
Article 6
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares 
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2 and 3 
and, as soon as it is notified, shall inform each State of the 
extent to which the reserves have been used up.
It shall inform the Member States, not later than 
5 October 198.4, Q f the amount in each reserve afterquantities have been returned thereto pursuant to Article
5.
It shall ensure that the drawing which exhausts any 
reserve does not exceed the balance available and, to this 
end, shall notify the amount of that balance to the 
Member State making the last drawing.
Article 7
1. The Member States shall take all measures 
necessary to ensure that additional shares drawn 
pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that 
imports may be charged without interruption against 
their accumulated shares of the tariff quota.
2. The Member States shall ensure that importers of
the products in question have
free access to the shares allocated to them.
3. The extent to which a Member State has used up its 
shares shall be determined on the basis of the imports of 
the products concerned originating in Morocco and 
entered with customs authorities for free circulation.
Article 8
At the Commission’s request, the Member States shall 
inform it of imports of the products concerned actually 
charged against their shares.
Article 9
The Member States and the Commission shall cooperate 
closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied with.
Article 10
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 
1984.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member 
States.
Done at Brussels,
For the Council
The President