Commission Regulation (EC) No 689/2004 of 14 April 2004 amending Regulation (EC) No 414/2004 adopting specific measures with a view to adapting the arrangements for administering tariff quotas on banana imports as a result of the accession of new Member States on 1 May 2004
Date: 2004-04-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: import, tariff quota, tropical fruit

15.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 106/17

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 689/2004

of 14 April 2004

amending Regulation (EC) No 414/2004 adopting specific measures with a view to adapting the
arrangements for administering tariff quotas on banana imports as a result of the accession of new
Member States on 1 May 2004

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 of 13
February 1993 on the common organisation of the market in
bananas (1), and in particular Article 20 thereof,

(4)

(5)

Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 414/2004, and Article 7
thereof relating to notifications from the Member States,
should therefore be amended accordingly, and the new
provisions should apply from the date of entry into
force of that Regulation.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion of
the Management
Committee for Bananas,

Whereas:

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 414/2004 (2) adopted
the measures required to identify in particular the tradi-
tional operators established in the Community who
supplied the markets of the new Member States in 2000,
2001 and 2002, with a view to the measures to be
adopted to adapt the arrangements for administering
tariff quotas on banana imports as a result of the acces-
sion of new Member States on 1 May 2004.

Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 414/2004 specifies
the supporting documents which operators must supply
to the competent authorities in order to be recognised as
traditional operators. In view of the difficulties encoun-
tered by operators in obtaining copies of the documents
held by other operators to attest that the products have
actually been released for free circulation in the country
of destination, additional supporting documents which
may be produced should be specified. These documents
should attest in particular that the products have been
dispatched to the country of destination and have been
sold to an operator to supply the market of the country
concerned.

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 414/2004 is hereby amended as follows:

1. The following paragraph is added to Article 6:

‘4.
If the operator concerned is not able to provide the
proofs of release for free circulation referred to in the
second subparagraph of paragraph 2, he or she must
provide proof that the products have been dispatched to a
new Member State and present the documents referred to in
point (g) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 2, accompa-
nied by proofs of payment. In such cases, the duly anno-
tated Community transit document may be accepted as
proof that the products have been dispatched to the new
Member State. These additional proofs must be submitted
by 21 April 2004 at the latest.

The above subparagraph shall apply for the purposes of
fixing a provisional specific reference quantity for
the
issuing of licences for imports of bananas in the months of
May and June 2004.’

2. In Article 7(3),

‘15 April 2004’

is replaced by ‘23 April

2004’.

The provisions of this Regulation are intended to take
account of the transitional difficulties encountered by
operators and may not prejudice any measures that
might subsequently be adopted by the Commission for
the purposes of administering the import arrangements
in question.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publica-
tion in the Official Journal of the European Union.

(1) OJ L 47, 25.2.1993, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation

(EC) No 2587/2001 (OJ L 345, 29.12.2001, p. 13).

(2) OJ L 68, 6.3.2004, p. 6.

It shall apply from 7 March 2004.

L 106/18

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

15.4.2004

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

Done at Brussels, 14 April 2004.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission