Commission Regulation (EC) No 444/2003 of 11 March 2003 amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 565/80 and Commission Regulations (EC) No 800/1999 and (EC) No 2090/2002 as regards the advance payment of export refunds in respect of agricultural products
Date: 2003-03-11
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: advance payment, agricultural product, customs inspection, export (EU), export refund

12.3.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 67/3

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 444/2003

of 11 March 2003

amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 565/80 and Commission Regulations (EC) No 800/1999 and
(EC) No 2090/2002 as regards the advance payment of export refunds in respect of agricultural
products

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1766/92 of 30
June 1992 on the common organisation of the market in
cereals (1), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1666/
2000 (2), and in particular Articles 13 and 21 thereof, and the
corresponding provisions of
regulations on the
common organisation of markets in agricultural products,

the other

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

It has been noted that the exporters' stock accounts used
to monitor basic products placed under the prefinancing
arrangements and intended for export in the form of
processed products and which are based on standard
rates of yields, do not necessarily reflect the real situation
of existing stocks and do not allow adequate checks on
the requirements to which these products are subject
under Community rules. Article 4(3) of Council Regula-
tion (EEC) No 565/80 of 4 March 1980 on the advance
payment of export refunds in respect of agricultural
products (3), as amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2026/
83 (4), should therefore be amended so that the standard
rates of yields are no longer applied to prefinancing.

Experience shows that
the rules do not adequately
specify how the physical checks on products placed
under the prefinancing arrangements should be applied.
Differences have also been found between Member
States in the way the physical checks are conducted. In
order to achieve uniform application of the rules in this
area, a minimum compulsory rate of physical checks on
products placed under the prefinancing arrangements
should be introduced,
to be carried out when the
payment declaration is accepted; it should be specified
also that these checks must be carried out in accordance
with the system laid down in Council Regulation (EEC)
No 386/90 (5), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 163/
94 (6), and Commission Regulation (EC) No 2090/
2002 (7).

(3)

It has been found that exporters use the prefinancing
arrangements above all to extend indirectly the period

(1) OJ L 181, 1.7.1992, p. 21.
(2) OJ L 193, 29.7.2000, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 62, 7.3.1980, p. 5.
(4) OJ L 199, 22.7.1983, p. 12.
(5) OJ L 42, 16.2.1990, p. 6.
(6) OJ L 325, 17.12.1999, p. 12.
(7) OJ L 322, 27.11.2002, p. 4.

of validity of export licences. Regulation (EC) No 800/
1999 of 15 April 1999 laying down common detailed
rules for the application of the system of export refunds
on agricultural products (8), as last amended by Regula-
tion (EC) No 1253/2002 (9), should therefore be further
amended as regards the period during which basic
products may remain under customs control with a view
to processing and the period during which products may
remain under a customs-warehousing or
free-zone
procedure.

Furthermore, to ensure sound market management, the
quantities of products placed under the prefinancing
arrangements should be known fairly rapidly.

Following the amendment of Commission Regulation
(EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provi-
sions for the implementation of Council Regulation
(EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs
Code (10), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 444/
2002 (11), certain references to the articles of that Regu-
lation contained in Regulation (EC) No 800/1999 should
be amended.

Regulations (EC) No 800/1999 and (EC) No 2090/2002
should be amended accordingly.

The Management Committees concerned have not deliv-
ered opinions within the time limits
set by their
chairmen,

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Article 4(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 565/80 is hereby replaced
by the following:

‘3.
As regards control procedures and the rate of yield,
the basic products shall be subject to the same rules as
apply in respect of inward processing to products of the
same nature, with the exception of the rules on the stan-
dard rates of yield.

(8) OJ L 102, 17.4.1999, p. 11.
(9) OJ L 183, 12.7.2002, p. 12.
(10) OJ L 253, 11.10.1993, p. 1.
(11) OJ L 68, 12.3.2002, p. 11.

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Official Journal of the European Union

12.3.2003

The rates of yield to be applied for basic products used in
the manufacture of
the goods listed in Annex C to
Commission Regulation (EC) No 1520/2000 (*) shall be
those indicated in that Annex.

(*) OJ L 177, 15.7.2000, p. 1.’

Where export does not take place under cover of an export
licence, the time limit shall be two months from the date of
acceptance of the payment declaration.’;

6. In the second subparagraph of Article 30(1), ‘Article 349’ is

replaced by ‘Article 357’;

Article 2

Regulation (EC) No 800/1999 is hereby amended as follows:

1.

in Article 2(1)(h), ‘Articles 471 to 495’ is replaced by ‘Arti-
cles 912a to 912g’;

2. Article 10(1) is replaced by the following:

‘1. Where the product is placed, in the Member State of
export, under one of
the simplified Community transit
procedures for carriage of goods by rail or large containers
provided for in Articles 412 to 442a of Regulation (EEC) No
2454/93 to a station of destination or for delivery to a
consignee outside the customs territory of the Community,
payment of the refund shall not be conditional on produc-
tion of the T5 control copy.’;

3. The following paragraph is added to Article 26:

Products for which a payment declaration is accepted
‘7.
shall be subject to a physical check when the declaration is
accepted, relating to a representative selection of at least
5 % of accepted payment declarations.

Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 386/90 and Article 2(2),
Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Article 6, Article 8(1) and (2),
the first subparagraph of Article 11 of and Annex I to
Commission Regulation (EC) No 2090/2002 (*) shall apply.
However, in the case of products placed under prefinancing
arrangements and intended for export after processing, the
physical check shall concern only the quantity and type of
product.

(*) OJ L 322, 27.11.2002, p. 4.’

4. Article 28(6) is replaced by the following:

The period during which basic products may remain
‘6.
under customs control with a view to processing shall be
equal to the remainder of the term of validity of the export
licence.

7. Article 53 is amended as follows:

(a) the second indent is replaced by the following:

‘— for each 12-digit code, of the quantities of exported
products not covered by export
licences with
advance fixing of the refund for the cases referred
to in the first indent of the second subparagraph of
Article 4(1), Article 6 and Article 45. The codes
shall be grouped by sector. Member States shall take
the measures required to ensure that such informa-
tion is notified by no later than the second month
following that of acceptance of the export declara-
tion,’;

(b) the following indent is added:

‘— of

for

the

under

prefinancing

each 12-digit

the quantities,

code, of
products, or for each eight-digit code, of goods
placed
arrangements
referred to in Chapter 3 of Title II. The codes shall
be grouped by sector. Member States shall take the
measures required to ensure that such information
is notified by no later than the second month
following that of acceptance of
the payment
declaration.’

Article 3

Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 2090/2002 is hereby deleted.

Article 4

This Regulation shall enter
into force on the third day
following its publication in the Official Journal of the European
Union.

Article 1 and Article 2(4), (5) and (7)(b) shall apply to products
covered by a payment declaration accepted from 1 October
2003.

Where export does not take place under cover of an export
licence, the time limit shall be two months from the date of
acceptance of the payment declaration.’;

Article 2(7)(a) shall apply to products covered by an export
declaration accepted from 1 October 2003.

5. Article 29(5) is replaced by the following:

‘5.
The period during which products may remain under
a customs-warehousing or free-zone procedure shall be
equal to the remainder of the term of validity of the export
licence.

Article 2(3) shall apply to products covered by a payment
declaration accepted from 1 January 2004.

Article 3 shall apply to products covered by an export declara-
tion accepted from 1 January 2004.

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This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 11 March 2003.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission