COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 25.07.1997 
COM(97) 417 final 
REPORT TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
AND THE COUNCIL 
ON THE APPLICATION OF REGULATION No 1469/95 (BLACK LIST) 
(presented by the Commission) 

REPORT TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
AND THE COUNCIL 
ON THE APPLICATION OF REGULATION No 1469/95 (BLACK LIST) 
1. Council Regulation No 1469/95 on measures to be taken with regard to certain 
beneficiaries of operations financed by the Guarantee Section of the EAGGF1 
introduced a system of identification and notification. Member States adopt the 
appropriate preventive measures with regard to operators presenting a risk of non-
reliability (tighter controls, suspension of payments, exclusion), place the names 
of these operators on a black list and notify the Commission. The Commission 
then forwards this information to the other Member States so that they can check 
the activities and reliability of the operators on their respective territories. 
Article 7 requires the Commission to report on the implementation of the 
Regulation two years after its entry into force and to propose any amendments 
that may be needed in the light of experience. 
2. Regulation No 1469/95 came into force on 6 July 1995. Detailed rules for its 
application were laid down by Commission Regulation No 745/96 on 24 April 
1996.2 The latter Regulation came into force on 28 April 1996 and was 
applicable from 1 July 1996. It specifies the scope of the identification and 
notification system by introducing a threshold of ECU 100 000. The result was 
that the identification and notification system could be put into practice for only 
one year. 
3. Certain practical arrangements had to be made for the application of the system: 
Under Article 5 (1) of Regulation No 745/96, each Member State has to 
designate a single competent authority to make and receive notifications 
within the system. On 1 August 1996 all the Member States had 
designated the competent authority participating in the notification 
system. 
Article 5(2) of the Regulation defines the information to be communicated 
to the Commission and provides that the Commission shall agree with the 
Member States a standard form for these notifications to be used by the 
competent authorities. On the basis of an agreement with the Member 
States reached at a meeting of the Irregularities and Mutual Assistance 
Group on 26 June 1996, the content of the standard form (Form A for the 
OJL 14^,29.6.1995, p. 1 
2 OJL 102. 25.4.1996, p. 15. 
initial communication by a Member State and Form B for the reaction of 
the other Member States) was adopted by Commission Decision on 4 
December 1996.3 
Article 10(2) of Regulation No 745/96 requires the Member States to 
notify the Commission of the additional steps they have taken before 
1 October 1996. On 30 June 1997, despite several invitations by the 
Commission, only six Member States4 had notified the Commission of the 
additional national measures. 
Article 11(4) of Regulation No 745/96 provides that the Commission shall 
publish in the Official Journal a notice concerning the introduction of the 
identification and notification system. This notice, which includes a list of 
the competent authorities of the Member States participating in the 
system, was published on 5 December 1996.5 
On 30 June 1997, only four notifications black-listing an economic operator had 
been received by the Commission from three Member States.6 Three of the 
notifications concerned beef export refunds and one concerned pigmeat export 
refunds. In each case, stricter controls were applied, and payment was suspended 
in one case. Only a minority of Member States reacted to these notifications and 
noted that there was no need to adopt measures with respect to these operators in 
their territory. 
The low number of notifications may be accounted for partly by the fact that the 
conditions for implementing the system (implementing measures defining certain 
essential aspects, designation of competent authorities and measures for 
incorporation into national law, agreement on the forms to be used) were not all 
in place until well after the entry into force of the basic regulation. In addition, 
discussions with Member States' representatives in the Irregularities and Mutual 
Assistance Group revealed that Member States had encountered a number of 
difficulties in becoming familiar with the system. In the relatively near future, 
once a fully computerised notification system is in place (using the AFIS7 
network), it should facilitate notifications in technical terms. 
Nonetheless the Member States had had sufficient time to communicate the cases 
and measures adopted to implement Regulation No 1469/95. It should be recalled 
that each notification should be made "as soon as possible" after the "preliminary 
administrative or judicial report by the competent authorities" (Article 1 (1) of 
Regulation No 1469/95 and Article 5(3) of Regulation No 745/96). If the 
preliminary provisional assessment proves to be unfounded in the light of 
developments in the administrative or judicial procedure, it can be revised 
(Article 1(2) of Regulation N° 745/96). 
3 Doc. C(96)3593. 
4 Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, United Kingdom, Sweden. 
5 OJC 366, 5.12.1996, p.ll. 
6 France, Netherlands, United Kingdom. 
Antifraud Information System. 7 
From the information available to the Commission based on Member States' 
notifications in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation No 595/918 for 1996 and 
the findings of surveys by the Commission (UCLAF9) in cooperation with 
Member States, many more operators should have been placed on the black list. 
For 1996 alone, and solely in the area of export refunds (one of the three areas 
covered by Regulation No 1469/95), under Article 3 of Regulation No 595/91, the 
Member States notified 72 irregularities, each of which exceeds the threshold of 
ECU 100 000.'o 
The Commission (UCLAF) will examine with the Member States the reasons 
why they did not notify more cases under Regulation No 1469/95. It will also 
examine the procedure followed in cases under investigation by SG/UCLAF 
which could meet the conditions of Regulation No 1469/95. 
Conclusion 
An in-depth evaluation of the identification and notification system cannot be carried out 
on the basis of the few notifications sent to the Commission. Since the teething problems 
of the system should have been overcome by now, the Commission will carefully 
monitor the application of Regulation No 1469/95 in the Member States, both with 
respect to the measures taken against the non-reliable operators and with respect to 
notifications in the next 12 months. It will then present another report to Parliament and 
the Council, in which it will consider whether the Regulation needs to be amended. 
8 OJL67, 14.3.1991,p.ll. 
9 Unit for the Coordination of Fraud Prevention. 
10 Article 2(1) of Regulation No 745/96 provides for the combination of irregularities committed by the 
same operator over a period of one year. 
s 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(97) 417 final 
DOCUMENTS 
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Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-422-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-23722-1 
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t