Commission Regulation (EC) No 1683/2006 of 14 November 2006 on transitional measures to be adopted in respect of trade in agricultural products on account of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania
Date: 2006-11-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Bulgaria, Romania, accession to the European Union, agricultural product, agricultural trade, export refund

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Official Journal of the European Union

15.11.2006

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1683/2006

of 14 November 2006

on transitional measures to be adopted in respect of trade in agricultural products on account of the
accession of Bulgaria and Romania

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

(3)

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to the Treaty of Accession of Bulgaria and
Romania and in particular Article 4(3) thereof,

Having regard to the Act of Accession of Bulgaria and Romania
and in particular the first paragraph of Article 41 thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

Transitional measures should be adopted in order to
trade, affecting the
avoid the risk of deflection of
common organisation of agricultural markets due to
the accession of
to the European
two new States
Union on 1 January 2007.

In accordance with the rules laid down in Commission
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 (1),
products are not entitled to refund unless they have
left the customs territory of the Community within 60
days of acceptance of the export declaration. The obli-
gation to leave the customs territory of the Community
within 60 days of acceptance of the export declaration is
also a primary requirement
for releasing the security
linked to the licence under Commission Regulation
(EC) No 1291/2000 of 9 June 2000 laying down
the
for
common detailed rules
system of
licences and advance
fixing certificates for agricultural products (2). Since the
internal borders will be removed upon accession, of
Bulgaria and Romania, products exported from the
Community of Twenty Five must have left the customs
territory of the Community by 31 December 2006 at the
latest in all cases, including where the export declaration
has been accepted less than 60 days before the date of
accession.

import and export

the application of

Trade deflections liable to disrupt
the market organi-
sations often involve products moved artificially with a
view to enlargement and do not form part of the normal
stocks of
the State concerned. Accumulation of such
surplus quantities can also give rise to distortion of
competition likely to affect the proper functioning of
the common market organisation. Surplus stocks may
also result from national production. Provisions should,
therefore, be made for deterrent charges to be levied on
surplus stocks in the new Member States.

Provisions should be taken to prevent operators from
circumventing the application of charges on goods in
free circulation,
laid down in Article 4, by placing
goods which have been already released for free circu-
lation in the Community of Twenty-five or in a new
Member State before accession under a suspensive
regime, either in temporary storage or under one of
the treatments or procedures
referred to in Article
4(15)(b) and Article 16(b) to (g) of Council Regulation
(EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the
Community Customs Code (3).

It is necessary to prevent goods in respect of which
export refunds were paid before 1 January 2007 from
benefiting from a second refund when exported to third
countries after 31 December 2006.

The measures provided for
in this Regulation are
necessary and appropriate and should be applied in
uniform fashion.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion of all
the Management
Committees concerned,

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

(1) OJ L 102, 17.4.1999, p. 11. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 671/2004 (OJ L 105, 14.4.2004, p. 5).

(2) OJ L 152, 24.6.2000, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 1282/2006 (OJ L 234, 29.8.2006, p. 4).

(a)

‘Community of Twenty-five’ means
constituted on 31 December 2006;

the Community as

(3) OJ L 302, 19.10.1992, p. 1.

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(b) ‘new Member States’ means Bulgaria and Romania;

(c)

‘enlarged Community’ means the Community as constituted
on 1 January 2007;

(d) ‘products’ means agricultural products and/or goods not

included in Annex I of the EC Treaty;

(e)

‘production refund’ means the refund granted pursuant to
Article 8 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1784/2003 (4) or
Article 13(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 (5).

Article 2

Exports from the Community of Twenty-five

for

export

intended for

the products

Where,
from the
Community of Twenty-five to one of the new Member States
for which an export declaration has been accepted by 31
December 2006 at the latest, and for which an entitlement to
the refund has not been acquired in accordance with Article 3
of Regulation (EC) No 800/1999 by that date, the beneficiary
shall reimburse any refund received in accordance with Article
52 of that Regulation.

Article 3

Suspensive regime

By way of derogation from Annex V, Chapter 4, to the
1.
Act of Accession and from Articles 20 and 214 of Regulation
(EEC) No 2913/92 products listed in Article 4(5) of this Regu-
lation, which before 1 January 2007 have been in free circu-
lation in the Community of Twenty-five or in a new Member
State and on 1 January 2007 are in temporary storage or under
one of the customs treatments or procedures referred to in
Article 4(15)(b) and Article (16)(b) to (g) of Regulation (EEC)
No 2913/92 in the enlarged Community, or which are in
transport after having been the subject of export formalities
within the enlarged Community shall, where a customs debt
on importation is incurred, be charged with the import duty
in accordance with Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No
2658/87 (6) applicable on the date of the incurrence of the
customs debt, and with additional duties, when applicable.

The first subparagraph shall not apply to products exported
the importer gives
from the Community of Twenty-five if
evidence that no export
the
products of the Member State of export. Upon the importer's
request, the exporter shall arrange to obtain an endorsement by
the competent authority on the export declaration that an
export refund has not been sought for the products of the
Member State of export.

refund has been sought

for

(4) OJ L 270, 21.10.2003, p. 78.
(5) OJ L 58, 28.2.2006, p. 1.
(6) OJ L 256, 7.9.1987, p. 1.

By way of derogation from Annex V, Chapter 4, to the
2.
Act of Accession and from Articles 20 and 214 of Regulation
(EEC) No 2191/92 products listed in Article 4(5) of this Regu-
lation coming from third countries which are under inward
processing referred to in Article 4(16)(d) of Regulation (EEC)
No 2913/92 or temporary admission referred to in Article
4(16)(f) of
that Regulation in a new Member State on 1
January 2007, shall where a customs debt on importation is
incurred, be charged with the import duty in accordance with
Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 applicable at
the date of the incurrence of the customs debt, and with addi-
tional duties, when applicable.

Article 4

Charges on goods in free circulation

1. Without prejudice to Annex V, Chapter 3, to the Act of
Accession, and where stricter legislation does not apply at
national
levy charges on
holders of surplus stocks at 1 January 2007 of products in
free circulation.

level, the new Member States shall

In order to determine the surplus stock of each holder, the

2.
new Member States shall take into account, in particular:

(a) averages of stocks available in the years preceding accession;

(b) the pattern of trade in the years preceding accession;

(c)

the circumstances in which stocks were built up.

The notion surplus stocks applies to products imported into the
new Member States or originating from the new Member States.
The notion surplus stocks applies also to products intended for
the market of the new Member States.

The recording of the stocks shall be performed on the basis of
the Combined Nomenclature applicable on 1 January 2007.

3.
The amount of the charge referred to in paragraph 1 shall,
for each product concerned, be equal to the amount by which
the import duty applicable in the Community referred to in
including any applicable additional duty on 31
Article 3(1),
December 2006, exceeds the import duty applicable in the
new Member State on that date, plus 20 % of that amount.
The revenue of
the charge collected by national authorities
shall be assigned to the national budget of the new Member
State.

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In order to ensure that the charge referred to in paragraph
4.
1 is correctly applied, the new Member States shall, without
delay, carry out an inventory of stocks available as at 1
January 2007. To this end, they may use a system for iden-
tifying holders of surplus stocks based on a risk analysis taking
due account in particular of the following criteria:

— type of activity of the holder,

— capacity of storage facilities,

— level of activity.

The new Member States shall notify the Commission of any
measures they have implemented, prior to accession, to avoid
any speculative stock-piling due to their accession, in particular
to monitor and track down import flows for products with high
risk of stock-piling, by 1 February 2007.

The new Member States shall notify the Commission of the
quantity of products in surplus stocks, except of those quantities
in public stocks as referred to in Article 5, by 30 September
2007.

— 1702 30 (8), 1702 40 (9), 1702 90 10, 1702 90 50,

1702 90 75, 1702 90 79, 1901 90 99,

— 2003 10 20,

2003 10 30,
2008 30 75, 2009 11, 2009 19, 2009 49,

2008 20,

2008 30 55,

— 2106 90 98 (10), 2204 30, 2207 10 00, 2207 20 00,

2208 90 91, 2208 90 99, 2402.

(b) in the case of Romania:

— 0201 10 00,

0201 20,

0201 30 00,

0202 10 00,

0202 20, 0202 30,

— 0203 11, 0203 12, 0203 19, 0203 21, 0203 22,
0207 26,
0207 13,

0207 14,

0203 29,
0207 27, 0209 00, 0210,

0204,

— 0401, 0402 10, 0402 21, 0402 91, 0402 99, 0403,

0404, 0405, 0406,

— 0407 00, 0408,

This article shall apply to products covered by the

5.
following CN codes:

— 0703 20 00, 0711 51 00,

(a)

in the case of Bulgaria:

— 0201 10 00,

0201 20,

0201 30 00,

0202 10 00,

0202 20, 0202 30,

— 1001, 1002 00 00, 1003 00, 1004 00 00, 1005,
1006 10, 1006 20, 1006 30, 1006 40 00, 1007 00,
1008, 1101 00, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1107, 1108,
1109 00 00,

— 1501, 1509, 1510 00, 1517,

— 0203 11, 0203 12, 0203 19, 0203 21, 0203 22,

0203 29, 0204, 0207 (7), 0209 00, 0210,

— 1601, 1602 32, 1602 39, 1602 42, 1602 50, 1602 90,

— 0401, 0402, 0403, 0404, 0405, 0406,

— 1702 30 (11), 1702 40 (12), 1702 90 10, 1702 90 50,

1702 90 75, 1702 90 79, 1901 90 99,

— 0407 00, 0408,

— 0703 20 00, 0711 51 00,

— 1001, 1002 00 00, 1003 00, 1004 00 00, 1005,
1006 10, 1006 20, 1006 30, 1006 40 00, 1007 00,
1008, 1101 00, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1107, 1108,
1109 00 00,

— 1501, 1509, 1510 00, 1517,

— 2003 10 20,

2003 10 30,

2008 20,

2008 30 55,

2008 30 75, 2009 11, 2009 19,

— 2106 90 98 (13), 2204 30, 2207 10 00, 2207 20 00,

2208 90 91, 2208 90 99.

Where a CN code covers products for which the import duty
referred to in paragraph 3 is not the same, the inventory of
stocks as referred to in paragraph 4 shall be made for each
product or group of products subject to a different import duty.

— 1601, 1602 32, 1602 39, 1602 41, 1602 42, 1602 49,

1602 50, 1602 90,

(7) Except of 0207 34.

(8) Except of 1702 30 10.
(9) Except of 1702 40 10.
(10) Only for goods with a milk content of more than 40 %.
(11) Except of 1702 30 10.
(12) Except of 1702 40 10.
(13) Only for goods with a milk content of more than 40 %.

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The Commission may add products to the list set out in

6.
paragraph 5(a) and (b) or remove products from that list.

Article 8

Proof of non-payment of refunds

Article 5

Census of public stocks

By 1 April 2007 at the latest, each new Member State shall
communicate the list and the quantities of goods which are in
public stocks in that Member State as referred to in Annex V,
Chapter 3 of the Act of Accession.

Article 6

National security stocks

The stocks as referred to in Article 4(4) and Article 5 shall not
include national security stocks which may possibly have been
constituted by the new Member States. The latter shall inform
the Commission of all changes made to national security stocks
together with the conditions governing the changes for the
purposes of establishing the Community supply balance.

Article 7

Measures in the event of non-payment of charges

If any Member State suspects that the charges provided for in
Articles 3 have not been paid in respect of a product, it shall
inform the Member State concerned so as to enable it to take
appropriate measures.

Products for which the declaration of export to third countries
is accepted by the new Member States during the period from 1
January 2007 to 31 December 2007 may qualify for an export
refund provided that it is established that no export refund has
already been paid in respect of those products or their consti-
tuents.

Article 9

No double payment of refunds

No product shall be eligible for more than one export refund.
Any product which attracted an export refund shall be eligible
neither for production refund when used in the manufacturing
of products referred to in Annex I to Commission Regulation
(EEC) No 1722/93 (14) nor for any intervention measure or aid
as laid down in Title I, Article 3 of Council Regulation (EC) No
1290/2005 (15).

Article 10

Entry not force

This Regulation shall enter into force subject to and on the date
of the entry into force of the Treaty of Accession of Bulgaria
and Romania in the European Union.

It shall apply until 31 December 2009.

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

Done at Brussels, 14 November 2006.

For the Commission

Mariann FISCHER BOEL
Member of the Commission

(14) OJ L 159, 1.7.1993, p. 112.
(15) OJ L 209, 11.8.2005, p. 1.