Report to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Regulation No 1469/95 (black list)
Date: 1997-07-25
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EAGGF Guarantee Section, award of contract, exchange of information, export restriction, fraud against the EU

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. 

2. 

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. 

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 

7 

France, Netherlands, United Kingdom. 

Antifraud  Information  System. 

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 

EN 

01  06  09 

Catalogue number  :  CB-CO-97-422-EN-C 

ISBN 92-78-23722-1 

Office  for Official  Publications of the European  Communities 

L-2985  Luxembourg 

t