1. 10. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 255/5 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) implementing the Decision of 
24 June 1988 on the system of the Communities' own resources 
COM(88) 483 final 
(Submitted by the Commission on 22 September 1988) 
(88/C 255/08) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 78h 
thereof, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 209 
thereof, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 183 
thereof, 
Having regard to the Decision of 24 June 1988 on the 
system of the Communities' own resources, hereinafter 
referred to as 'the Decision of 24 June 1988', and in 
particular Article 8 (2) thereof ('), 
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European 
Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors, 
Whereas for implementation of the Decision of 24 June 
1988 and in the light of experience gained in ahplying 
Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 
2891/77 of 19 December 1977 (2) as amended by 
Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No 
1990/88 of 30 June 1988 (3), hereinafter referred to as 
'Regulation No 2891/77', the Regulation will need to be 
amended to such an extent that it is better to replace it; 
Whereas the own resources referred to in Article 2 of the 
Decision of 24 June 1988 must be available to the 
Community; 
0) OJ No L 185, 15. 7. 1988. 
O OJ No L 336, 27. 12. 1977. 
(») OJ No L 176, 7. 7. 1988. Whereas the concept of establishment must be defined in 
respect of the own resources referred to in Article 2 (1) 
(a) and (b) of the Decision of 24 June 1988; 
Whereas separate accounts should be kept for entitle­
ments which have not been recovered; whereas these 
accounts and the submission of a quarterly statement of 
such accounts should enable the Commission to monitor 
more closely the action taken by Member States to 
collect own resources, and particularly those 
compromised by fraud or irregularities; 
Whereas provision should be made, as regards the own 
resources accruing from value added tax, hereinafter 
called 'VAT resources', referred to in Article 2 (1) (c) of 
the Decision of 24 June 1988, for Member States to 
make available to the Community, in the form of 
constant monthly twelfths, the own resources entered in 
the budget and subsequently to adjust the amounts made 
available in accordance with the actual VAT assessment 
base as soon as it is fully known; 
Whereas this procedure is also to apply to the additional 
resource referred to in Article 2 (1) (d) of the Decision 
of 24 June 1988, hereinafter referred to as 'the 
additional resource', created in accordance with Council 
Directive 88/ /EEC of 24 June 1988, hereinafter 
referred to as 'the Directive of 24 June 1988'; 
Whereas the own resources must be made available in 
the form of an entry of the amounts due in a special 
account opened in the name of the Commission with a 
financial institution appointed for the purpose by 
agreement between the Commission and the Member 
State concerned; whereas the balances on these accounts 
should bear interest; whereas in order to restrict 
movements of funds to what are necessary for the 
implementation of the budget, the Community must 
allow the abovementioned accounts to be drawn upon 
solely to cover the Commission's cash requirements; 
No C 255/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 88 
Whereas the balance to be carried forward to the 
following financial year should be defined; 
Whereas, in order to ensure that the Community budget 
will be financed in all circumstances, the procedure for 
making available the GNP based contributions referred 
to in Article 2 (7) of the Decision of 24 June 1988 
should be laid down; 
Whereas the Member States must keep at the disposal of 
the Commission and, where necessary, forward to it the 
documents and information needed to allow it to 
exercise the powers conferred upon it as regards the 
Communities' own resources and budgetary procedure; 
Whereas the Member States should conduct the checks 
and inquiries relating to the establishment and making 
available of own resources; whereas the Commission 
should exercise its powers in accordance with this Regu­
lation; 
Whereas close cooperation between Member States and 
the Commission will facilitate the application of this 
Regulation, the aim of which is to enable the 
Communities to dispose of their own resources under the 
best possible conditions, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 
TITLE I 
General provisions 
Article 1 
The Communities' own resources provided for in the 
Decision of 24 June 1988 shall be established by the 
Member States in accordance with Community 
provisions or, in the absence thereof, in accordance with 
their own laws, regulations or administrative provisions. 
They shall be made available to the Commission and 
inspected as specified in this Regulation, without 
prejudice to Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) 
No 2892/77 of 19 December 1977 ('). 
Article 2 
1. For the purpose of applying this Regulation, the 
Communities' entitlement to the own resources referred 
to in Article 2 (1) (a) and (b) of the Decision of 24 June 
1988 shall be established as soon as the appropriate 
department of the Member State has notified the debtor 
of the amount which is due or which it considers to be 
due. Notification shall be given as soon as the debtor is 
known and the amount of tax can be determined or 
estimated by the appropriate administrative authorities. 
(') OJ No L 336, 27. 12. 1977. 2. Paragraph 1 shall apply when a notification must be 
corrected. 
Article 3 
Member States shall take all appropriate measures to 
ensure that the supporting documents concerning the 
establishment and the making available of own resources 
are kept for at least three calendar years as from the end 
of the year to which these supporting documents refer. 
If verification of these supporting documents by the 
national administration alone or in conjunction with the 
Commission shows that an establishment to which they 
relate may have to be corrected, they shall be kept 
beyond the time limit provided for in the first 
subparagraph for a sufficient period to permit the 
correction to be made and checked. 
Article 4 
1. Each Member State shall inform the Commission: 
(a) of the names of the departments or agencies 
responsible for establishing own resources and, 
where appropriate, their status; 
(b) of the laws, regulations, administrative provisions 
and accounting procedures for establishing own 
resources and making them available to the 
Commission. 
2. The Commission shall, at the request of the other 
Member States, pass to them the information referred to 
in paragraph 1. 
Article 5 
The rate referred to in Article 2 (1) (d) of the Decision 
of 24 June 1988, which shall be set within the budgetary 
procedure, shall be calculated as a percentage of the sum 
of the forecast GNP of the Member States in such 
manner that it fully covers that part of the budget not 
financed from customs duties, agricultural levies, VAT 
resources, financial contributions to supplementary 
research and technological development programmes, 
other revenue and, where appropriate, GNP based 
financial contributions. This rate shall be expressed in the 
budget by a figure rounded off to the fourth decimal 
place. 
TITLE II 
Accounts for own resources 
Article 6 
1. Accounts for own resources shall be kept by the 
Treasury of each Member State or by the body 
appointed by each Member State and broken down by 
type of resources. 
L^^ Official Journal of the European Communities l^oC^BB 
2, ^ The entitlements established in accordance with 
Article^shall^ subject to point ^b^ be recorded in 
theaccountsnolaterthanthefirstworkingday 
of the second month following the month during 
which the entitlements were established, 
^ entitlements which are established but not 
recorded inthe accounts as specified in points 
because they have not yet been recovered and no 
security has been lodged^ shall be recorded in 
separate accounts within the time limit specified in 
points 
member states may take the same action when 
established entitlements covered by guarantees are 
challenged and are liable to change asaresult of 
the dispute, 
^VATresources and the additional resources shall 
however^ be recorded in the accounts as specified 
in point^as follows^ 
— the twelfth referredtoin Article tO ^shall 
be recordedonthe first working dayof each 
months 
— the balances referredtoin Article tO^and 
^ andtheadjustmentsreferredtoin Article 
tO ^ and ^ shall be recorded annually^ 
except for theparticularadiustmentsreferred 
to in the first indent of Article ^O^which 
shallberecordedintheaccountsonthefirst 
working day of the month following 
agreement between the member ^tate 
concerned and the Commission. 
o5 Each member ^tate shall send the Commissions 
within the time limits specified in paragraph 2^amonthly 
statement of its accounts for the entitlements referred to 
in paragraph^^and^b^andaquarterly statement for 
the separate accounts referred toinparagraph^^. 
The quarterly statement shall includeabrief description 
of cases of fraud and irregularities involving entitlements 
ofovertOOOOECLl 
Each member ^tate shall draw up yearly a summary 
account of established entitlements together with a 
report on the establishment anoLentrymthe accounts of 
own resources and shall send it to the Commission 
beforet^ay of the year following the financial year in 
question, 
corrections carried out under Article 2 ^ shall be 
added to or subtracted fromthetotalamonntofestab 
lished entitlements. They shall be recorded in the 
accounts as specified in ArticleD^^andd^and in 
the statements as specified in ArticleD^in accordance 
with the date of these corrections. Corrections in respect of cases of fraud and irregularities 
already notified to the Commission shall be singled out. 
TrTL^na 
l^aki^^ available ow^^esou^ces 
t, ^ubjectto Article tO ^1^ d^ the amount of own 
resources established^after tO^Bo hasbeendeductedby 
way of collection costs in accordance with Article^^ 
of the loecisionof 2^]une t^^ shallbecreditedby 
each^iember^tatetotheaccountopened in thename 
of the commission withafinancial institution appointed 
for thepurpose by agreement between the commission 
andthe^iember^tate concerned, 
rlowever^ VATresources^ the additional resource and^ 
where appropriated C^R based financial contributions 
shallbecredited in accordance with theprocedure laid 
down in Article ^0 ^ to ^,This account shallearn 
interest ataratereflectingtheinterbank money market 
rate for the currencyconcerned, 
2, The amounts credited shall be converted by the 
Commission and entered in its accounts in ECmUonthe 
basis of theEdUrate used for the monthduring which 
suchentryismade. 
L ^ The credit entry referred to in Article^^shall 
be made^ subjectto point d^ no later than the 
first workingdayofthesecondmonth following 
the month during which the entitlement was 
established in accordance with Article 2, 
d^ Entitlements recorded inthe separate accountsin 
accordance with ArticleD^^shall be credited 
no later than the first working day of the second 
month following the month during which the 
entitlements are recovered. 
^ member states shall notify the Commission by 
tele^ atleastfourworkingdays in advanced of 
the amounts they are going to credit to the 
account, 
2, If necessary^ member states may beinvited by the 
Commission to bring forward by one month the 
crediting ofresourcesotherthanVATresources and the 
additional resource. In this case^ the credit entry referred 
to in paragraph 1 shall be for twice the amount of 
customs duties^ agricultural levies and sugar storage 
levies. 
Each entry brought forward shall be adjusted the 
following month when the entry mentioned in paragraph 
No C 255/8 Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 88 
1 is made. This adjustment shall consist in the negative 
entry of an amount equal to that in the entry brought 
forward. 
3. However, VAT resources, the additional resource 
and, where appropriate, GNP based financial contri­
butions shall be credited on the first working day of each 
month, the amounts being one twelfth of the relevant 
totals in the budget, converted into national currencies at 
the rates of exchange used for the conversion into ECU 
for budgetary purposes of the VAT base and GNP 
forecasts drawn up by the Member States in their 
national currencies. 
The entry in respect of the EAGGF monetary reserve 
referred to in Article 6 of the Decision of 24 June 1988 
shall be made on the first working day of the month 
following the charging to the budget of the expenditure 
concerned and shall be limited to the said expenditure. 
Any change in the uniform rate of VAT resources, in the 
correction granted to the United Kingdom referred to in 
Article 5 of the Decision of 24 June 1988 and in its 
financing, in the uniform rate of the additional resource 
and, where appropriate, in the GNP based financial 
contributions shall require the final adoption of a 
supplementary or amending budget and shall give rise to 
readjustments of the twelfths which have been entered 
since the beginning of the financial year. 
These readjustments shall be carried out when the first 
entry is made following the final adoption of the 
supplementary or amending budget if it is adopted 
before the 16th of the month. Otherwise they shall be 
carried out when the second entry following final 
adoption is made. By way of derogation from Article 5 
of the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 
applicable to the general budget of the European 
Communities (2) as last amended by Council Regulation 
(ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No 2049/88 of 24 June 
1988 (J), these readjustments shall be entered in the 
accounts in respect of the financial year of the 
supplementary amending budget in question. 
Calculation of the twelfths for January of each financial 
year shall be based on the amounts provided for in the 
draft budget, with the exception of the amounts for 
financing the EAGGF monetary reserve, referred to in 
Article 78 (3) of the ECSC Treaty, Article 203 (3) of the 
EEC Treaty and Article 177 (3) of the Euratom Treaty; 
the adjustment shall be made with the entry for the 
following month. 
If the budget has not been finally adopted before the 
beginning of the financial year, the Member States shall 
enter on the first working day of each month, including 
January, one twelfth of the amount of VAT own 
O OJ No L 356, 31. 12. 1977. 
(») OJ No L 185, 15. 7. 1988. resources, of the additional resource, with the exception 
of the amounts for financing the EAGGF monetary 
reserve, and, where appropriate, of the GNP based 
financial contributions entered in the last budget finally 
adopted; the adjustment shall be made on the first due 
date following final adoption of the budget if it is 
adopted before the 16th of the month. Otherwise, the 
adjustment shall be made on the second due date 
following final adoption of the budget. 
4. Each Member State shall, on the basis of the 
annual statement of VAT resources provided for in 
Article 10 (1) of Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 
2892/77, be debited with an amount calculated from the 
information contained in the said statement by applying 
the uniform rate adopted for the previous financial year 
and credited with the 12 payments made during that 
previous financial year. However, each Member State's 
VAT resources base to which the above rate is applied 
may not exceed 55 % of its GNP as referred to in the 
first sentence of paragraph 7. The Commission shall 
work out the balance and shall inform the Member 
States in time for them to enter it in the account referred 
to in Article 9 (1) of this Regulation on the first working 
day of December of the same year. 
5. The Commission shall then calculate adjustments to 
the financial contributions so as to restore, in the light of 
the actual yield from VAT resources, the original distri­
bution in the budget between the latter and the GNP 
based financial contributions. For the calculation of these 
adjustments, the balances referred to in paragraph 4 shall 
be converted into ECU at the rates of exchange applying 
on the first working day after 15 November preceding 
the entries provided for in paragraph 4. For each 
Member State concerned, the total of VAT balances 
shall be adjusted by the ratio between VAT resources 
and the financial contributions entered in the budget. 
The Commission shall communicate the results of this 
calculation to the Member States which, during the 
previous financial year, paid GNP based financial contri­
butions so that they can make a credit or debit entry as 
appropriate in the account referred to in Article 9 (1) on 
the first working day of December of the same year. 
6. Any corrections to the VAT resources base under 
Article 10b (1) of Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) 
No 2892/77 shall give rise for each Member State 
concerned whose base does not exceed 55 % of its GNP 
to the following adjustments to the balance referred to in 
paragraph 4 of this Article: 
— The corrections under the first subparagraph of 
Article 10b (1) of the said Regulation shall give rise 
to a general adjustment to be entered in the account 
referred in Article 9 (1) of this Regulation on the first 
working day of December of the same year, provided 
LIO.^ Cfficial Journal of the European Communities l^oC^B^ 
that the correction aoolies to years after r^^ 
otherwise the adjustment shall be made onl August 
of the sameyear.Howe^er^aoarticular adjustment 
may be entered before that date if the Member State 
concerned and the Commission are in agreements 
— where the measures which the Commission takes 
under the second subparagraph of Article 10b ^D of 
Regulation ^EEC^Euratom^ECSC^o^^B^ to 
correct the base lead to an adjustment of the entries 
in the account referred to in Article ^^ of this 
Regulations that adjustment shall be made on the 
date specified by the Commission pursuant to the 
saidmeasuresD 
The changes to Cl^P referred to in the first 
suboaragraohof oaragraoh ^ shall also give rise to an 
adjustmentofthebalanceof any MemberState whose 
base is canoed at^^of its C^PThe adjustments to 
be made to theVATbalancesbythe first working day of 
L^ecember of each year under the preceding suboara^ 
graohs of this oaragraoh shall also give rise to the calcu^ 
lation by the Commissionof further adjustments tothe 
Cl^Pbasedfinancialcontributions.Thee^changerates 
to be emoloyedincalculating these further adjustments 
shall be those used for the initial calculation referred to 
inoaragraoh^. 
The Commission shall inform the Member States of 
these adjustments so that they can enter them in the 
account referred to in Article^^on the first working 
dayofL^ecemberofthesameyear, 
B, Cm the basis of figures for aggregate CI^P at 
market orices and its comoonents^ suoolied by the 
Member Statesinaccordance with Article ^^ of the 
Council directive of^Junet^^ and subject to Article 
D thereof the Commission shall establish the Cl^F of the 
previous financial year for each Member Stated Each 
Member State shall be debited with an amount 
calculated by aoolying to C^P the uniform rate adooted 
fortheorevious financialyear^ accountbeing takenof 
any drawings on the EACCR monetary reserved and 
credited with thet^ payments made during that previous 
financial year^ The Commission shall work out the 
balance and shall inform theMember States intime for 
them to enter it in the account referred to in Article^^ 
of this Regulation on the first working day of December 
ofthesameyear^ 
^. Any changes to the Cl^P of orevious financial 
years^ pursuant to Article^^of the Council directive 
of ^June r^ and subject to ArticleDthereof^ shall 
give rise for each Member State concerned to an 
adjustment to the balance established pursuant to 
oaragraoh^.The Commission shall informthe Member 
States of these adjustments sothattheycanenter them 
in the account referred to in Article^^t^ of this R.egu^ lation on the first working day of December of the same 
year^ After the third year following a given financial 
year^ any changes to Cr^P shall no longer be taken into 
account^e^ceot on ooints notified withinthistimelimit 
either by the Commission or by the Member State^ 
^ The operations referred to in oaragraohs^^^B 
and ^ constitute modifications torevenue inresoectof 
the financial year inwhichtheyoccur. 
Any delay in making the entry in the account referred to 
in Article^^shall give rise to the oayment of interest 
by the Member State concerned at the interest rate 
aoolicable on the Member Stated money market on the 
due date for short-term oublic financing ooerations^ 
increased by ^ percentage ooints. This rate shall be 
increasedbyO.^ofaoercentageooint for each month 
of delay.The increased rate shall be annlied to the entire 
oeriodofdelay^ 
^T^^^V 
Ma^a^e^ie^t of cash resources 
1, The Commission shalldrawon the sums credited 
to the accounts referred to in Article^^to the extent 
necessary to cover its cash resource requirements arising 
out of the implementation of the budget 
^, If thecashresourcerequirementsareine^cess of 
the assets of the accounts^ the Commission may draw in 
excess of the totaloftheseassetssubjecttotheavaila^ 
bility of aoorooriations in the budget and within the limit 
of the total revenue enteredmthe budget. In this events 
it shall inform the Member States in advance of any 
foreseeable excess requirements. 
o5 In the sole case of default underaloan contracted 
pursuant to regulations and decisions of the Councils in 
circumstancesinwhichtheCommissioncannot activate 
other measures provided for by the financial 
arrangements aoolying to these loans intimetoensure 
comoliance with the Community's legal obligations to its 
lenders^ the provisions of oaragraohs ^ and ^t may 
provisionally be aoolied irrespective of the conditions in 
oaragraoh^inorder to service the Community's debts. 
^, Thedifferencebetweentheoverallassetsandthe 
cash resource requirements shallbe divided among the 
MemberStates^ asfarasoossible^ inorooortion to the 
estimated budget revenue from each of them. 
No C 255/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 88 
5. The financial institution referred to in Article 9(1) 
shall execute the orders and instructions sent by the 
Commission within the time limit specified by the latter. 
When no time limit is specified, the financial institution 
shall credit the accounts of the final beneficiaries with 
their financial institutions as soon as possible, and at all 
events within five working days after receiving the 
Commission's orders and instructions. 
6. The financial institution shall send a statement of 
account to the Commission no later than three working 
days after each operation. 
TITLE V 
Procedure for the application of Article 2 (7) of the 
Decision of 24 June 1988 
Article 13 
1. This Article shall apply where it may be necessary 
to implement the provisional derogation provided for in 
Article 2 (7) of the Decision of 24 June 1988. 
2. The GNP at market prices shall be calculated by 
the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on 
the basis of statistics prepared according to the European 
System of Integrated Economic Accounts (ESA), and 
corresponding, for each Member State, to the arithmetic 
mean of the first three years of the five-year period 
preceding the financial year in respect of which the 
provisions of Article 2 (6) of the Decision of 24 June 
1988 have been applied. No account shall be taken of 
any revisions of statistical data made after the final 
adoption of the budget. 
3. The gross national product for each reference year 
shall be calculated in terms of the ECU on the basis of 
the average rate of the ECU for the year in question. 
4. As long as the derogation provided for in Article 2 
(7) of the Decision of 24 June 1988 applies to one or 
more Member States, the Commission shall, in its 
preliminary draft budget, fix the percentage corre­
sponding to the financial contributions of those Member 
States on the basis of the proportion of their GNP to the 
sum total of the gross national products of the Member 
States, and shall determine the amount of that part of 
the budget to be financed by VAT resources at the 
uniform rate and by financial contributions. 
These figures shall be approved in accordance with 
budgetary procedure. 
Article 14 
1. The definition of GNP at market prices shall be 
that given in Articles 1 and 2 of the Directive of 24 June 
1988. 2. The figures to be used in calculating the percentage 
of financial contributions shall be those supplied 
pursuant to Article 3 (2) of the Council Directive of 
24 June 1988 and subject to Article 6 thereof. In the 
absence of such figures the Statistical Office of the 
European Communities shall use the data available. 
TITLE VI 
Procedure for the application of Article 7 of the Decision 
of 24 June 1988 
Article 15 
For the purposes of applying Article 7 of the Decision of 
24 June 1988, the balance of a given financial year shall 
consist of the difference between: 
— all the revenue collected in respect of that financial 
year, and 
— the amount of payments made against appropriations 
for that financial year increased by the amount of the 
appropriations for the same financial year carried 
over pursuant to Articles 6 (1) (b) and (c) and 2 (b) 
of the Financial Regulation. 
This difference shall be increased or decreased on the 
one hand, by the net amount of appropriations carried 
forward from previous financial years which have lapsed 
and, on the other hand, by way of derogation from 
Article 4 of the Financial Regulation, by: 
— payments made in excess of non-differentiated 
appropriations carried over from the previous 
financial year under Article 6 (1) of the Financial 
Regulation as a result of changes in ECU rates, and 
— the balance resulting from exchange gains and losses 
during the financial year. 
Article 16 
1. The Commission shall, before the end of October 
in each financial year, make an estimate of the own 
resources collected for the entire year, on the basis of the 
data at its disposal at that time. 
If appreciable differences from the original estimates 
appear, the former may give rise to a letter of 
amendment to the draft budget for the following 
financial year. 
TITLE VII 
Provisions concerning inspection measures 
Article 17 
1. Member States shall take all requisite measures to 
ensure that the amount corresponding to the entitlements 
1. 10. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 255/11 
established under Articles 1 and 2 are made available to 
the Commission as specified in this Regulation. 
2. Member States shall be free from the obligation to 
place at the disposal of the Commission the amounts 
corresponding to established entitlements solely if, for 
reasons of force majeure these amounts have not been 
collected. Moreover, in exceptional cases, Member States 
shall be entitled not to make these amounts available to 
the Commission if, after a detailed examination of the 
relevant details of the case, it is found that recovery is 
definitively impossible, for reasons beyond their control. 
Cases involving amounts of over 10 000 ECU must be 
mentioned in the report referred to in paragraph 3. 
3. Member States shall notify the Commission, in 
six-monthly reports, of the outcome of their inspections 
and of comprehensive information and questions of 
principle concerning the most important problems arising 
out of the application of this Regulation and, in 
particular, matters in dispute. 
These reports shall be submitted within two months after 
the end of each half year and shall include the number of 
cases of irregularities concerning own resources and an 
overall estimate of the own resources evaded. 
The reports shall also describe serious irregularities 
which could have a significant financial impact on own 
resources. 
Article 18 
1. Member States shall conduct the checks and 
inquiries concerning the establishment and the making 
available of own resources. The Commission shall 
exercise its powers as specified in this Article. 
2. Accordingly, Member States shall: 
— carry out additional inspection measures at the 
Commission's request; in its request the Commission 
shall state the reasons for the additional inspection; 
— associate the Commission, at its request, with the 
inspection measures which they carry out. 
Member States shall take all steps required to facilitate 
these inspection measures. Where the Commission is 
associated with these measures, Member States shall 
place at its disposal the supporting documents referred to 
in Article 3. 
In order to restrict additional inspection measures to the 
minimum: (b) in the monthly statement of accounts referred to in 
Article 6 (3), the amounts entered in the accounts 
which relate to irregularities or delays in the estab­
lishment, entry in the accouns and making available 
of own resources, discovered during the inspections 
referred to above, must be identified by means of 
appropriate notes. 
3. Without prejudice to the inspections referred to in 
paragraph 2, the Commission may itself undertake 
on-the-spot inspections. The officials appointed by the 
Commission to undertake these inspections shall, to the 
extent necessary for the correct application of this Regu­
lation, have access to the supporting documents referred 
to in Article 3 and to all other related documents. The 
Commission shall give adequate notice of the inspection 
to the Member State concerned by the inspection or on 
whose territory the inspection is to take place. Represen­
tatives of the Member State concerned may take part in 
these inspections. 
4. The inspection measures referred to in paragraphs 
1, 2 and 3 shall not predjudice: 
(a) the inspection measures undertaken by Member 
States in accordance with their own laws, regulations 
or administrative provisions; 
(b) the measures provided for in Articles 206, 206a and 
206b of the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community and Articles 180, 180a and 
180b of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic 
Energy Community; 
(c) the inspection arrangements made pursuant to 
Article 209 (c) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community and Article 183 (c) 
of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic 
Energy Community. 
5. The Commission shall from time to time report to 
Parliament and to the Council on the functioning of the 
inspection arrangements. 
TITLE VIII 
Provisions relating to the Advisory Committee on the 
Communities' Own Resources 
Article 19 
1. An Advisory Committee on the Communities' own 
resources, hereinafter called 'the Committee', is hereby 
set up. 
(a) the Commission may, in specific cases, request that 
certain documents be forwarded to it; 2. The Committee shall consist of representatives of 
the Member States and of the Commission. Each 
No C 255/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 1. 10. 88 
Member State shall be represented on the Committee by 
not more than five officials. 
The Chairman of the Committee shall be a representative 
of the Commission. 
The secretariat services for the Committee shall be 
provided by the Commission. 
3. The Committee shall adopt its own rules of 
procedure. 
Article 20 
1. The Committee shall examine the questions raised 
by its chairman on his own initiative or at the request of 
the representative of a Member State, which concern the 
application of this Regulation. 
2. At the request of the chairman, the Committee shall 
give its opinion within a time limit which the chairman 
may set according to the urgency of the matter in hand, 
if necessary, by taking a vote. 
The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in 
addition, each Member State shall have the right to 
request that its position also be recorded in these 
minutes. 
The Commission shall take full account of the 
Committee's opinion. It shall inform the Committee of 
the manner in which it has done so. TITLE IX 
Final provisions 
Article 21 
The Commission shall, by 1 December 1992 at the latest, 
submit a report on the implementation of this Regulation 
and, where appropriate, propose any necessary 
amendments. 
Article 22 
The Commission, after consulting the Committee, shall 
adopt the procedures for implementing this Regulation 
as and when necessary. 
Article 23 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day 
following its publication in the Official Journal of the 
European Communities. 
It shall have effect from 1 January 1989. 
Regulation No 2891/77 is hereby repealed. 
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and 
directly applicable in all Member States.