Commission Regulation (EC) No 1215/2008 of 5 December 2008 on opening and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for malting barley from third countries and derogating from Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 (Codified version)
Date: 2008-12-05
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: beverage industry, codification of EU law, derogation from EU law, import, import licence, quality label, tariff quota, third country

L 328/20

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Official Journal of the European Union

6.12.2008

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1215/2008

of 5 December 2008

on opening and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for malting barley
from third countries and derogating from Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007

(Codified version)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of
22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agri­
cultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agri­
cultural products (Single CMO Regulation) (1), and in particular
Article 144(1), in conjunction with Article 4 thereof,

Having regard to Council Decision 2006/333/EC of 20 March
2006 on the conclusion of an Agreement in the form of an
Exchange of Letters between the European Community and the
United States of America pursuant to Article XXIV:6 and Article
XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
in the
1994 relating to the modification of concessions
schedules of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the
Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of
Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the
Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak
Republic in the course of
their accession to the European
Union (2), and in particular Article 2 thereof,

Having regard to Council Decision 2007/444/EC of 22 February
2007 on the conclusion of an Agreement between the
European Community and the Government of Canada on the
conclusion of GATT Article XXIV:6 Negotiations (3), and in
particular Article 2 thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(EC) No

2377/2002

from third countries

Commission Regulation
of
27 December 2002 opening and providing for the ad­
ministration of a Community tariff quota for malting
from
barley
Council Regulation (EEC) No 1766/92 (4) has been
substantially amended several times (5). In the interests
of clarity and rationality the said Regulation should be
codified.

and derogating

Following
changed the conditions for

trade negotiations,

the Community has
the import of common

(1) OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 124, 11.5.2006, p. 13.
(3) OJ L 169, 29.6.2007, p. 53.
(4) OJ L 358, 31.12.2002, p. 95.
(5) See Annex II.

wheat of
low and medium quality and of barley by
creating import quotas. For barley, the Community has
decided to replace the ‘margin of preference’ system by
two tariff quotas: one tariff quota of 50 000 tonnes for
malting barley and one tariff quota of 300 000 for
barley. This Regulation concerns the tariff quota of
50 000 tonnes of malting barley.

In this

the Community’s

international

aged in vats
respect, provisions

commitments,
Under
malting barley for import must be intended for use in
containing
the manufacture of beer
beechwood.
should be
adopted relating to the quality criteria for barley and to
processing requirements similar to those of Commission
Regulation (EC) No 1234/2001 of 22 June 2001 laying
down detailed rules for applying Council Regulation (EC)
No 822/2001 and providing for the partial reimbur­
sement of import duties levied on a quota of barley for
malting (6).

(EC) No

1301/2006

of
Commission Regulation
31 August 2006 laying down common rules for the
tariff quotas for agricultural
administration of
licences (7)
products managed by a system of
import
applies
tariff quota periods
to import
starting from 1 January 2007.

licences

import

for

Regulation (EC) No 1301/2006 applies without prejudice
to additional conditions or derogations which might be
laid down by this Regulation.

To ensure that imports of the barley covered by this tariff
quota are orderly and not speculative, they should be
made subject to the issue of import licences.

To ensure
this quota,
the proper management of
deadlines for the lodging of licence applications should
be laid down and the information to be included in
applications and licences should be specified.

To take account of supply conditions, a derogation
should be made concerning the period of validity of
the licences.

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(6) OJ L 168, 23.6.2001, p. 12.
(7) OJ L 238, 1.9.2006, p. 13.

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Official Journal of the European Union

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(9)

it

Taking account of the obligation to apply a high level of
guarantee to ensure sound management of the quota and
that this guarantee would have to be in place during all
the processing period,
is appropriate to exempt
importers whose consignments of malting barley are
accompanied by a certificate of conformity agreed with
the government of
the United States of America
according to the administrative cooperation procedure
provided for in Articles 63, 64 and 65 of Commission
Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying
the implementation of Council
down provisions for
Regulation
the
Community Customs Code (1).

establishing

(EEC) No

2913/92

Commission Regulation (EC) No 376/2008 (3) and Regu­
3.
lations (EC) No 1342/2003 and (EC) No 1301/2006 shall
apply, save as otherwise provided for in this Regulation.

Article 3

For the purposes of applying this Regulation, the following
definitions shall apply:

(a)

‘damaged grains’ means grains of barley, other cereals or
including deterioration
wild oats
fungus, bad
caused by disease,
weather and all other forms of physical damage;

that display damage,
frost, heat,

insects or

(10)

To ensure sound management of this quota, the security
on the import licences should be set at a relatively high
level, notwithstanding Article 12 of Commission Regu­
lation (EC) No 1342/2003 of 28 July 2003 laying down
special detailed rules for the application of the system of
import and export licences for cereals and rice (2).

(b) ‘sound and fair merchantable barley’ means barley grains or
pieces of grains that are not damaged as defined in point (a),
except grains damaged by frost or fungus.

(11)

Rapid two-way communication should be established
between the Commission and the Member States
regarding the quantities applied for and imported.

The benefit of the tariff quota shall be granted provided

1.
the imported barley meets the following criteria:

Article 4

(12)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with the opinion of
the Management
Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural
Markets,

(a) specific weight: minimum 60,5 kg/hl;

(b) damaged grains: maximum 1 %;

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(c) moisture: maximum 13,5 %;

Article 1

(d) sound and fair merchantable barley: minimum 96 %.

Notwithstanding Article 135 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007,
the import duty for malting barley falling within CN code
1003 00 shall be fixed in the framework of the quota opened
by this Regulation.

Article 135 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 shall apply to
imports of the products referred to in this Regulation, in excess
of the quantity provided for in Article 2 of this Regulation.

Article 2

1.
A tariff import quota of 50 000 tonnes of malting barley
falling within CN code 1003 00 to be used in the manufacture
of beer aged in beechwood vats is hereby opened on 1 January
each year. It carries the serial number 09.4061.

Compliance with the quality criteria set out in paragraph

2.
1 shall be certified by one of the following documents:

(a) a certificate of analysis carried out at the importer’s request
by the customs office of release for free circulation; or

(b) a certificate of conformity for the imported barley issued by
the country of origin and

a government authority of
recognised by the Commission.

Article 5

The benefit of access to this quota shall be granted

1.
provided the following conditions are fulfilled:

Duties on imports within the tariff quota shall be levied at

2.
a rate of EUR 8 per tonne.

(a)

the imported barley must be malted within six months from
the date of release for free circulation;

(1) OJ L 253, 11.10.1993, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 189, 29.7.2003, p. 12.

(3) OJ L 114, 26.4.2008, p. 3.

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(b) the resulting malt must be used in the manufacture of beer
aged in vats containing beechwood within no more than
150 days
following the date on which the barley is
processed into malt.

possibly in the form of the T5 control copy, must demon­
strate to the satisfaction of the competent authorities of the
Member State of
the quantities
importation that
imported have been processed into the product referred in
Article 5(2)(c).

all

Applications for import licences under the tariff quota

2.
shall be accepted only if they are accompanied by:

(a)

the proof or proofs provided for in Article 5 of Regulation
(EC) No 1301/2006;

(b) proof that the applicant has lodged a security of EUR 85
per tonne with the competent authority of the Member
State of release for free circulation.
In case the malting
barley consignments are accompanied by a certificate of
conformity issued by the Federal Grain Inspection Service
(FGIS) as referred to in Article 7,
the security shall be
reduced to EUR 10 per tonne;

(c) a written undertaking by the applicant that all the imported
goods will be processed, within six months from the date of
acceptance of entry for free circulation, into malt for use in
the manufacture of beer aged in vats containing beechwood
within 150 days following the date on which the barley was
processed into malt. He shall specify the processing location
by stating either a processing firm and Member State or a
maximum of five processing plants. Before the goods are
consigned for processing a control copy T5 shall be made
out of the office of customs clearance in accordance with
Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93. The information required in
the first sentence of
(c) and the name and
this point
location of the processing plant shall be given in Box 104
of the T5.

Processing of

the imported barley into malt shall be
3.
deemed to have taken place when the malting barley has
undergone steeping. The use of the malt to manufacture beer
aged in vats containing beechwood within no more than 150
days following the date on which the barley is processed into
malt shall be subject to verification by the competent authority.

Article 6

The security provided for

1.
released provided the following conditions are fulfilled:

in Article 5(2)(b) shall be

(a)

the quality of the barley, established on the basis of the
certificate of conformity or analysis certificate, meets the
criteria laid down in Article 4(1);

(b) the certificate applicant provides proof of the specific final
use referred to in Article 5(1), certifying that this use has
taken place within the time limit provided for in the written
undertaking referred to in Article 5(2)(c). That proof,

2. Where the quality criteria and/or the conditions relating to
processing set out in Articles 4 and 5 of this Regulation are not
fulfilled,
referred to in
import
Article 12(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1342/2003 and the ad­
ditional security referred to in Article 5(2)(b) of this Regulation
shall be forfeited.

security for

licences

the

Article 7

A blank specimen of the certificates to be issued by the FGIS is
given in Annex I. Certificates issued by the FGIS for malting
barley destined to be used in the manufacture of beer aged in
vats containing beechwood shall be officially recognised by the
Commission under the administrative cooperation procedure as
provided for in Articles 63, 64 and 65 of Regulation (EEC) No
2454/93. When the analytical parameters entered in the certifi­
cate of conformity issued by FGIS show conformity with the
malting barley quality standards established in Article 4 of this
Regulation samples shall be taken of at least 3 % of the cargoes
arriving at each entry port during the marketing year. Repro­
stamp and signatures authorised by the
duction of
the
Government of
shall be
the United States of America
published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European
Union.

Article 8

applicants may not

Notwithstanding Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No
1.
1301/2006,
than one
licence application per month. Where applicants lodge more
those applications shall be
than one application, none of
admissible and the securities lodged when the applications
were
forfeited to the Member State
concerned.

submitted shall be

submit more

Import licence applications shall be lodged with the competent
authorities of the Member States no later than the second Friday
of each month at 13.00 (Brussels time).

Each licence application shall

2.
kilograms (whole numbers).

indicate a quantity in

No later

submission

than 18:00 (Brussels time) on the Monday
3.
following
the
licence
the
competent authorities shall send the Commission, by electronic
means, a notification showing each application with the
quantity applied for, including ‘nil’ notifications.

application,

of

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Licences shall be issued on the fourth working day
the notification referred to in

4.
following the deadline for
paragraph 3.

Member States shall communicate to the Commission, by elec­
tronic means, on the day of issue of the import licences, the
information on the
referred to in
Article 11(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1301/2006, with the
total quantities for which import licences have been issued.

issued as

licences

Article 9

Article 10

Section 20 of the import licence application and the import
licence shall contain the name of the processed product to be
made from the cereals concerned.

Article 11

Regulation (EC) No 2377/2002 is repealed.

References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as
references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance
with the correlation table in Annex III.

Import licences shall be valid for 60 days from the day of issue.
In accordance with Article 22(2) of Regulation (EC) No
376/2008,
the licence shall be
the period of validity of
calculated from the actual date of issue.

Article 12

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following
its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

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

Done at Brussels, 5 December 2008.

For the Commission
The President

José Manuel BARROSO

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Official Journal of the European Union

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ANNEX I

Blank certificate of conformity authorised by the Government of the United States of America for malting
barley destined to be used in the manufacture of beer aged in vats containing beechwood

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ANNEX II

Repealed Regulation with list of its successive amendments

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2377/2002
(OJ L 358, 31.12.2002, p. 95)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 159/2003
(OJ L 25, 30.1.2003, p. 37)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 626/2003
(OJ L 90, 8.4.2003, p. 32)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1112/2003
(OJ L 158, 27.6.2003, p. 23)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 777/2004
(OJ L 123, 27.4.2004, p. 50)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2022/2006
(OJ L 384, 29.12.2006, p. 70)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1456/2007
(OJ L 325, 11.12.2007, p. 76)

Only Article 13

Only Article 2

Only Article 3

ANNEX III

Correlation table

Regulation (EC) No 2377/2002

This Regulation

Articles 1 and 2

Articles 1 and 2

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

Article 8

Article 9

Article 10

Article 13
—

Article 14, first paragraph

Article 14, second paragraph

Annex I
—

—

Article 3

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

Article 8

Article 9

Article 10

Article 11

Article 12
—

Annex I

Annex II

Annex III