Amended proposal for a Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) amending Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 implementing Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources (1) (98/C 150/07) COM(1998) 209 final - 97/0188(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission pursuant to Article 189a(2) of the EC Treaty on 3 April 1998)

In the light of the Court of Auditors' opinion and Parliament's amendments, the Commission is making the following changes to its initial proposal:

1. In Article 2, paragraph 1c is replaced by the following:

'1c. An ad hoc entry is made in the account referred to in Article 6(2)(a) without notification of the debtor for the purposes of the establishment referred to in paragraph 1 in cases where:

(a) the competent administrative authorities do not make an entry in the accounts for the customs debt as a result of an error by the customs authorities in the circumstances referred to in Article 220(2)(b) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code, even though the debtor is known and the amount due can be calculated, and the amount involved exceeds ECU 2 000.

However, errors resulting from binding tariff information or information on origin provided by the administrations of other Member States which proves to be inaccurate or incomplete shall not be considered as errors requiring ad hoc entry.

(b) the debtor cannot be notified within the period referred to in Article 221(3) of the Regulation referred to in subparagraph (a) above for reasons which can be attributed to the customs authorities.`

2. In Article 17:

(a) paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

'2. Member States shall be released from the obligation to place at the disposal of the Commission the amounts corresponding to established entitlements which prove irrecoverable:

(a) either for reasons of force majeure;

(b) or for reasons which cannot be attributed to them.

The amounts of established entitlements shall be declared irrecoverable by a substantiated decision of the competent administrative authority noting the impossibility of recovering them.

The amounts of established entitlements shall be deemed irrecoverable at the latest, after a period of five years from the date on which the amount has been notified in accordance with Article 2 or, in the event of an administrative or judicial appeal, from notification of the final decision.

If payments are staggered, the period of five years shall start from the last actual payment where this does not clear the debt.

The amounts declared or deemed irrecoverable shall be removed from the separate account referred to in Article 6(2)(b). They shall be mentioned in an annex to the quarterly statement referred to in Article 6(3)(b) and, where applicable, in the quarterly statement referred to in Article 6(4). This statement shall distinguish the amounts removed depending on whether they have been declared or are deemed irrecoverable.`

(b) In point (b):

'Paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the following` should read 'the following paragraph 3 is added`.

(c) The following paragraph 4 is replaced by the following:

'4. The Commission must adopt a reasoned decision within six months of receipt of the report provided for in paragraph 3 if it considers that the conditions set out in the first subparagraph of paragraph 2 have not been met. In this case, the Member State concerned is obliged to enter the amount corresponding to the unrecovered entitlements in the accounts referred to in Article 6(2)(a) and to make it available to the Commission at the latest on the first working day after the 19th day of the second month following the month during which it was notified of the decision.

If the Commission considers that the conditions of the first subparagraph of paragraph 2 have been met, it has six months to notify the Member State of its agreement to waive the amounts in question.`

(1) OJ C 267, 3.9.1997, p. 64.