CELEX: 51988PC0483
Language: en
Date: 1988-09-19
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( ECSC, EEC, EURATOM ) IMPLEMENTING THE DECISION OF 24 JUNE 1988 ON THE SYSTEM OF THE COMMUNITIES' OWN RESOURCES

1. 10. 88                             Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 255/5
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) implementing the Decision of
                              24 June 1988 on the system of the Communities' own resources
                                                    COM(88) 483 final
                                   (Submitted by the Commission on 22 September 1988)
                                                       (88/C 255/08)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         Whereas the concept of establishment must be defined in
                                                                 respect of the own resources referred to in Article 2 (1)
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            (a) and (b) of the Decision of 24 June 1988;
Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 78h
thereof,
                                                                 Whereas separate accounts should be kept for entitle-
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            ments which have not been recovered; whereas these
Economic Community, and in particular Article 209                accounts and the submission of a quarterly statement of
thereof,                                                         such accounts should enable the Commission to monitor
                                                                 more closely the action taken by Member States to
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            collect    own    resources,   and    particularly   those
Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 183           compromised by fraud or irregularities;
thereof,
Having regard to the Decision of 24 June 1988 on the             Whereas provision should be made, as regards the own
system of the Communities' own resources, hereinafter            resources accruing from value added tax, hereinafter
referred to as 'the Decision of 24 June 1988', and in            called 'VAT resources', referred to in Article 2 (1) (c) of
particular Article 8 (2) thereof ('),                            the Decision of 24 June 1988, for Member States to
                                                                 make available to the Community, in the form of
                                                                 constant monthly twelfths, the own resources entered in
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                 the budget and subsequently to adjust the amounts made
                                                                 available in accordance with the actual VAT assessment
Having regard      to   the   opinion  of   the   European       base as soon as it is fully known;
Parliament,
 Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors,
                                                                 Whereas this procedure is also to apply to the additional
                                                                 resource referred to in Article 2 (1) (d) of the Decision
Whereas for implementation of the Decision of 24 June            of 24 June 1988, hereinafter referred to as 'the
 1988 and in the light of experience gained in ahplying          additional resource', created in accordance with Council
Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No                       Directive 88/       / E E C of 24 June 1988, hereinafter
2891/77 of 19 December 1977 (2) as amended by                    referred to as 'the Directive of 24 June 1988';
Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No
 1990/88 of 30 June 1988 (3), hereinafter referred to as
 'Regulation N o 2891/77', the Regulation will need to be
amended to such an extent that it is better to replace it;       Whereas the own resources must be made available in
                                                                 the form of an entry of the amounts due in a special
                                                                 account opened in the name of the Commission with a
Whereas the own resources referred to in Article 2 of the        financial institution appointed for the purpose by
 Decision of 24 June 1988 must be available to the                agreement between the Commission and the Member
 Community;                                                       State concerned; whereas the balances on these accounts
                                                                  should bear interest; whereas in order to restrict
                                                                  movements of funds to what are necessary for the
 0) OJ No L 185, 15. 7. 1988.                                     implementation of the budget, the Community must
 O OJ No L 336, 27. 12. 1977.                                     allow the abovementioned accounts to be drawn upon
 (») OJ No L 176, 7. 7. 1988.                                     solely to cover the Commission's cash requirements;
 ---pagebreak---  No C 255/6                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                   1. 10. 88
Whereas the balance to be carried forward to the                  2.     Paragraph 1 shall apply when a notification must be
following financial year should be defined;                       corrected.
Whereas, in order to ensure that the Community budget                                       Article 3
will be financed in all circumstances, the procedure for
making available the G N P based contributions referred           Member States shall take all appropriate measures to
to in Article 2 (7) of the Decision of 24 June 1988               ensure that the supporting documents concerning the
should be laid down;                                              establishment and the making available of own resources
                                                                  are kept for at least three calendar years as from the end
                                                                  of the year to which these supporting documents refer.
Whereas the Member States must keep at the disposal of
the Commission and, where necessary, forward to it the
documents and information needed to allow it to                   If verification of these supporting documents by the
exercise the powers conferred upon it as regards the              national administration alone or in conjunction with the
Communities' own resources and budgetary procedure;               Commission shows that an establishment to which they
                                                                  relate may have to be corrected, they shall be kept
                                                                  beyond the time limit provided for in the first
Whereas the Member States should conduct the checks               subparagraph for a sufficient period to permit the
and inquiries relating to the establishment and making            correction to be made and checked.
available of own resources; whereas the Commission
should exercise its powers in accordance with this Regu-
lation;                                                                                     Article 4
                                                                  1.     Each Member State shall inform the Commission:
Whereas close cooperation between      Member States and
the Commission will facilitate the      application of this       (a) of the names of the departments or agencies
Regulation, the aim of which           is to enable the                responsible for establishing own resources and,
Communities to dispose of their own    resources under the            where appropriate, their status;
best possible conditions,
                                                                  (b) of the laws, regulations, administrative provisions
                                                                       and accounting procedures for establishing own
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                           resources and making them available to the
                                                                       Commission.
                          TITLE I
                                                                  2.    The Commission shall, at the request of the other
                     General provisions                           Member States, pass to them the information referred to
                                                                  in paragraph 1.
                          Article 1
The Communities' own resources provided for in the                                          Article 5
Decision of 24 June 1988 shall be established by the              The rate referred to in Article 2 (1) (d) of the Decision
Member States in accordance with Community                        of 24 June 1988, which shall be set within the budgetary
provisions or, in the absence thereof, in accordance with         procedure, shall be calculated as a percentage of the sum
their own laws, regulations or administrative provisions.         of the forecast G N P of the Member States in such
They shall be made available to the Commission and                manner that it fully covers that part of the budget not
inspected as specified in this Regulation, without                financed from customs duties, agricultural levies, VAT
prejudice to Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC)              resources, financial contributions to supplementary
No 2892/77 of 19 December 1977 (').                               research and technological development programmes,
                                                                  other revenue and, where appropriate, G N P based
                                                                  financial contributions. This rate shall be expressed in the
                          Article 2
                                                                  budget by a figure rounded off to the fourth decimal
 1.    For the purpose of applying this Regulation, the           place.
Communities' entitlement to the own resources referred
to in Article 2 (1) (a) and (b) of the Decision of 24 June
 1988 shall be established as soon as the appropriate                                       TITLE II
department of the Member State has notified the debtor
of the amount which is due or which it considers to be                            Accounts for own resources
due. Notification shall be given as soon as the debtor is
known and the amount of tax can be determined or                                            Article 6
 estimated by the appropriate administrative authorities.
                                                                   1.    Accounts for own resources shall be kept by the
                                                                  Treasury of each Member State or by the body
                                                                  appointed by each Member State and broken down by
 (') OJ No L 336, 27. 12. 1977.                                   type of resources.
 ---pagebreak---  L ^ ^                                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                    l^oC^BB
2, ^      The entitlements established in accordance with              Corrections in respect of cases of fraud and irregularities
          Article^shall^ subject to point ^b^ be recorded in           already notified to the Commission shall be singled out.
          theaccountsnolaterthanthefirstworkingday
          of the second month following the month during
          which the entitlements were established,
                                                                                                 TrTL^na
    ^     entitlements which are established but not                                  l^aki^^ available ow^^esou^ces
          recorded inthe accounts as specified in p o i n t s
          because they have not yet been recovered and no
          security has been lodged^ shall be recorded in
          separate accounts within the time limit specified in         t,    ^ubjectto Article tO ^1^ d ^ the amount of own
          points                                                       resources established^after tO^Bo hasbeendeductedby
          member states may take the same action when                 way of collection costs in accordance with A r t i c l e ^ ^
          established entitlements covered by guarantees are           of the loecisionof 2^]une t ^ ^ shallbecreditedby
          challenged and are liable to change asaresult of            each^iember^tatetotheaccountopened in thename
          the dispute,                                                 of the commission withafinancial institution appointed
                                                                      for thepurpose by agreement between the commission
                                                                       andthe^iember^tate concerned,
    ^ V A T r e s o u r c e s and the additional resources shall
          however^ be recorded in the accounts as specified
          in p o i n t ^ a s follows^                                  rlowever^ VATresources^ the additional resource and^
                                                                      where appropriated C^R based financial contributions
          — the twelfth referredtoin Article tO ^ s h a l l           shallbecredited in accordance with theprocedure laid
                be recordedonthe first working dayof each             down in Article ^0 ^ to ^ , T h i s account shallearn
                months                                                interest ataratereflectingtheinterbank money market
          — the balances referredtoin Article t O ^ a n d             rate for the currencyconcerned,
                ^ andtheadjustmentsreferredtoin Article
                tO ^ and ^ shall be recorded annually^
                except for theparticularadiustmentsreferred           2, The amounts credited shall be converted by the
                to in the first indent of Article ^ O ^ w h i c h     Commission and entered in its accounts in ECmUonthe
                shallberecordedintheaccountsonthefirst                basis of theEdUrate used for the monthduring which
               working day of the month following                     suchentryismade.
                agreement between the member ^tate
                concerned and the Commission.
o5 Each member ^tate shall send the Commissions                        L ^     The credit entry referred to in A r t i c l e ^ ^ s h a l l
within the time limits specified in paragraph 2^amonthly                       be made^ subjectto point d ^ no later than the
statement of its accounts for the entitlements referred to                     first workingdayofthesecondmonth following
in paragraph^^and^b^andaquarterly statement for                                the month during which the entitlement was
the separate accounts referred t o i n p a r a g r a p h ^ ^ .                 established in accordance with Article 2,
The quarterly statement shall includeabrief description                    d^ Entitlements recorded inthe separate accountsin
of cases of fraud and irregularities involving entitlements                    accordance with A r t i c l e D ^ ^ s h a l l be credited
ofovertOOOOECLl                                                                no later than the first working day of the second
                                                                               month following the month during which the
                                                                               entitlements are recovered.
                                                                           ^   member states shall notify the Commission by
Each member ^tate shall draw up yearly a summary                               tele^ atleastfourworkingdays in advanced of
account of established entitlements together with a                            the amounts they are going to credit to the
report on the establishment anoLentrymthe accounts of                          account,
own resources and shall send it to the Commission
b e f o r e t ^ a y of the year following the financial year in
question,                                                              2, If necessary^ member states may beinvited by the
                                                                      Commission to bring forward by one month the
                                                                      crediting ofresourcesotherthanVATresources and the
                                                                      additional resource. In this case^ the credit entry referred
                                                                      to in paragraph 1 shall be for twice the amount of
corrections carried out under Article 2 ^ shall be                    customs duties^ agricultural levies and sugar storage
added to or subtracted fromthetotalamonntofestab                       levies.
lished entitlements. They shall be recorded in the
accounts as specified in A r t i c l e D ^ ^ a n d d ^ a n d in
the statements as specified in A r t i c l e D ^ i n accordance        Each entry brought forward shall be adjusted the
with the date of these corrections.                                    following month when the entry mentioned in paragraph
 ---pagebreak--- No C 255/8                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                   1. 10. 88
1 is made. This adjustment shall consist in the negative          resources, of the additional resource, with the exception
entry of an amount equal to that in the entry brought             of the amounts for financing the EAGGF monetary
forward.                                                          reserve, and, where appropriate, of the GNP based
                                                                  financial contributions entered in the last budget finally
                                                                  adopted; the adjustment shall be made on the first due
3. However, VAT resources, the additional resource                date following final adoption of the budget if it is
and, where appropriate, GNP based financial contri-               adopted before the 16th of the month. Otherwise, the
butions shall be credited on the first working day of each        adjustment shall be made on the second due date
month, the amounts being one twelfth of the relevant              following final adoption of the budget.
totals in the budget, converted into national currencies at
the rates of exchange used for the conversion into ECU
for budgetary purposes of the VAT base and GNP
forecasts drawn up by the Member States in their                  4. Each Member State shall, on the basis of the
national currencies.                                              annual statement of VAT resources provided for in
                                                                  Article 10 (1) of Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No
                                                                  2892/77, be debited with an amount calculated from the
The entry in respect of the EAGGF monetary reserve                information contained in the said statement by applying
referred to in Article 6 of the Decision of 24 June 1988          the uniform rate adopted for the previous financial year
shall be made on the first working day of the month               and credited with the 12 payments made during that
following the charging to the budget of the expenditure           previous financial year. However, each Member State's
concerned and shall be limited to the said expenditure.           VAT resources base to which the above rate is applied
                                                                  may not exceed 55 % of its GNP as referred to in the
Any change in the uniform rate of VAT resources, in the           first sentence of paragraph 7. The Commission shall
correction granted to the United Kingdom referred to in           work out the balance and shall inform the Member
Article 5 of the Decision of 24 June 1988 and in its              States in time for them to enter it in the account referred
financing, in the uniform rate of the additional resource         to in Article 9 (1) of this Regulation on the first working
and, where appropriate, in the GNP based financial                day of December of the same year.
contributions shall require the final adoption of a
supplementary or amending budget and shall give rise to
readjustments of the twelfths which have been entered
since the beginning of the financial year.                         5. The Commission shall then calculate adjustments to
                                                                   the financial contributions so as to restore, in the light of
                                                                  the actual yield from VAT resources, the original distri-
These readjustments shall be carried out when the first            bution in the budget between the latter and the GNP
 entry is made following the final adoption of the                 based financial contributions. For the calculation of these
 supplementary or amending budget if it is adopted                 adjustments, the balances referred to in paragraph 4 shall
 before the 16th of the month. Otherwise they shall be             be converted into ECU at the rates of exchange applying
 carried out when the second entry following final                 on the first working day after 15 November preceding
 adoption is made. By way of derogation from Article 5             the entries provided for in paragraph 4. For each
 of the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977                   Member State concerned, the total of VAT balances
 applicable to the general budget of the European                  shall be adjusted by the ratio between VAT resources
 Communities (2) as last amended by Council Regulation             and the financial contributions entered in the budget.
 (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No 2049/88 of 24 June                        The Commission shall communicate the results of this
 1988 (J), these readjustments shall be entered in the             calculation to the Member States which, during the
 accounts in respect of the financial year of the                  previous financial year, paid GNP based financial contri-
 supplementary amending budget in question.                        butions so that they can make a credit or debit entry as
                                                                   appropriate in the account referred to in Article 9 (1) on
                                                                   the first working day of December of the same year.
 Calculation of the twelfths for January of each financial
 year shall be based on the amounts provided for in the
 draft budget, with the exception of the amounts for
 financing the EAGGF monetary reserve, referred to in               6. Any corrections to the VAT resources base under
 Article 78 (3) of the ECSC Treaty, Article 203 (3) of the         Article 10b (1) of Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC)
 EEC Treaty and Article 177 (3) of the Euratom Treaty;              No 2892/77 shall give rise for each Member State
 the adjustment shall be made with the entry for the                concerned whose base does not exceed 55 % of its GNP
 following month.                                                   to the following adjustments to the balance referred to in
                                                                    paragraph 4 of this Article:
  If the budget has not been finally adopted before the
 beginning of the financial year, the Member States shall
  enter on the first working day of each month, including           — The corrections under the first subparagraph of
 January, one twelfth of the amount of VAT own                          Article 10b (1) of the said Regulation shall give rise
                                                                        to a general adjustment to be entered in the account
  O OJ No L 356, 31. 12. 1977.                                          referred in Article 9 (1) of this Regulation on the first
  (») OJ No L 185, 15. 7. 1988.                                         working day of December of the same year, provided
 ---pagebreak---  LIO.^                                     Cfficial Journal of the European Communities                                     l^oC^B^
     that the correction aoolies to years after r ^ ^                 lation on the first working day of December of the same
     otherwise the adjustment shall be made o n l August              year^ After the third year following a given financial
     of the sameyear.Howe^er^aoarticular adjustment                   year^ any changes to Cr^P shall no longer be taken into
     may be entered before that date if the Member State              account^e^ceot on ooints notified withinthistimelimit
     concerned and the Commission are in agreements                   either by the Commission or by the Member State^
— where the measures which the Commission takes                       ^     The operations referred to in o a r a g r a o h s ^ ^ ^ B
     under the second subparagraph of Article 10b ^D of               and ^ constitute modifications torevenue inresoectof
     Regulation ^ E E C ^ E u r a t o m ^ E C S C ^ o ^ ^ B ^ to      the financial year inwhichtheyoccur.
     correct the base lead to an adjustment of the entries
     in the account referred to in Article ^ ^ of this
     Regulations that adjustment shall be made on the
     date specified by the Commission pursuant to the
     saidmeasuresD
                                                                     Any delay in making the entry in the account referred to
                                                                      in A r t i c l e ^ ^ s h a l l give rise to the oayment of interest
The changes to Cl^P referred to in the first                          by the Member State concerned at the interest rate
suboaragraohof oaragraoh ^ shall also give rise to an                 aoolicable on the Member Stated money market on the
adjustmentofthebalanceof any MemberState whose                        due date for short-term oublic financing ooerations^
base is canoed a t ^ ^ o f its C ^ P T h e adjustments to             increased by ^ percentage ooints. This rate shall be
be made to theVATbalancesbythe first working day of                   increasedbyO.^ofaoercentageooint for each month
L^ecember of each year under the preceding suboara^                   of delay.The increased rate shall be annlied to the entire
graohs of this oaragraoh shall also give rise to the calcu^           oeriodofdelay^
lation by the Commissionof further adjustments tothe
Cl^Pbasedfinancialcontributions.Thee^changerates
to be emoloyedincalculating these further adjustments
shall be those used for the initial calculation referred to                                             ^T^^^V
inoaragraoh^.
                                                                                         Ma^a^e^ie^t of cash resources
The Commission shall inform the Member States of
these adjustments so that they can enter them in the
                                                                      1, The Commission shalldrawon the sums credited
account referred to in A r t i c l e ^ ^ o n the first working
                                                                      to the accounts referred to in A r t i c l e ^ ^ t o the extent
dayofL^ecemberofthesameyear,
                                                                      necessary to cover its cash resource requirements arising
                                                                      out of the implementation of the budget
B, Cm the basis of figures for aggregate CI^P at
market orices and its comoonents^ suoolied by the
                                                                      ^, If thecashresourcerequirementsareine^cess of
Member Statesinaccordance with Article ^ ^ of the
                                                                      the assets of the accounts^ the Commission may draw in
Council directive o f ^ J u n e t ^ ^ and subject to Article
                                                                      excess of the totaloftheseassetssubjecttotheavaila^
D thereof the Commission shall establish the Cl^F of the
                                                                      bility of aoorooriations in the budget and within the limit
previous financial year for each Member Stated Each
                                                                      of the total revenue enteredmthe budget. In this events
Member State shall be debited with an amount
                                                                      it shall inform the Member States in advance of any
calculated by aoolying to C ^ P the uniform rate adooted
                                                                      foreseeable excess requirements.
fortheorevious financialyear^ accountbeing takenof
any drawings on the EACCR monetary reserved and
credited with thet^ payments made during that previous
financial year^ The Commission shall work out the                     o5 In the sole case of default underaloan contracted
balance and shall inform theMember States intime for                  pursuant to regulations and decisions of the Councils in
them to enter it in the account referred to in A r t i c l e ^ ^      circumstancesinwhichtheCommissioncannot activate
of this Regulation on the first working day of December               other measures provided for by the financial
ofthesameyear^                                                        arrangements aoolying to these loans intimetoensure
                                                                      comoliance with the Community's legal obligations to its
                                                                      lenders^ the provisions of oaragraohs ^ and ^t may
                                                                      provisionally be aoolied irrespective of the conditions in
^. Any changes to the Cl^P of orevious financial
                                                                      oaragraoh^inorder to service the Community's debts.
years^ pursuant to A r t i c l e ^ ^ o f the Council directive
of ^ J u n e r ^ and subject to ArticleDthereof^ shall
give rise for each Member State concerned to an
 adjustment to the balance established pursuant to                     ^,     Thedifferencebetweentheoverallassetsandthe
 oaragraoh^.The Commission shall informthe Member                      cash resource requirements shallbe divided among the
 States of these adjustments sothattheycanenter them                   MemberStates^ asfarasoossible^ inorooortion to the
 in the account referred to in Article^^t^ of this R.egu^             estimated budget revenue from each of them.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 255/10                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                  1. 10. 88
5. The financial institution referred to in Article 9(1)          2. The figures to be used in calculating the percentage
shall execute the orders and instructions sent by the             of financial contributions shall be those supplied
Commission within the time limit specified by the latter.         pursuant to Article 3 (2) of the Council Directive of
                                                                  24 June 1988 and subject to Article 6 thereof. In the
When no time limit is specified, the financial institution        absence of such figures the Statistical Office of the
shall credit the accounts of the final beneficiaries with         European Communities shall use the data available.
their financial institutions as soon as possible, and at all
events within five working days after receiving the
Commission's orders and instructions.                                                      TITLE VI
                                                                  Procedure for the application of Article 7 of the Decision
6. The financial institution shall send a statement of                                  of 24 June 1988
account to the Commission no later than three working
days after each operation.
                                                                                           Article 15
                                                                  For the purposes of applying Article 7 of the Decision of
                           TITLE V                                24 June 1988, the balance of a given financial year shall
                                                                  consist of the difference between:
Procedure for the application of Article 2 (7) of the
                  Decision of 24 June 1988                       — all the revenue collected in respect of that financial
                                                                      year, and
                           Article 13
                                                                 — the amount of payments made against appropriations
1. This Article shall apply where it may be necessary                 for that financial year increased by the amount of the
to implement the provisional derogation provided for in               appropriations for the same financial year carried
Article 2 (7) of the Decision of 24 June 1988.                        over pursuant to Articles 6 (1) (b) and (c) and 2 (b)
                                                                      of the Financial Regulation.
2. The GNP at market prices shall be calculated by
the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on            This difference shall be increased or decreased on the
the basis of statistics prepared according to the European        one hand, by the net amount of appropriations carried
System of Integrated Economic Accounts (ESA), and                 forward from previous financial years which have lapsed
corresponding, for each Member State, to the arithmetic           and, on the other hand, by way of derogation from
mean of the first three years of the five-year period            Article 4 of the Financial Regulation, by:
preceding the financial year in respect of which the
provisions of Article 2 (6) of the Decision of 24 June           — payments made in excess of non-differentiated
1988 have been applied. No account shall be taken of                  appropriations carried over from the previous
any revisions of statistical data made after the final                financial year under Article 6 (1) of the Financial
adoption of the budget.                                               Regulation as a result of changes in ECU rates, and
3. The gross national product for each reference year            — the balance resulting from exchange gains and losses
shall be calculated in terms of the ECU on the basis of               during the financial year.
the average rate of the ECU for the year in question.
                                                                                           Article 16
4. As long as the derogation provided for in Article 2            1. The Commission shall, before the end of October
(7) of the Decision of 24 June 1988 applies to one or             in each financial year, make an estimate of the own
more Member States, the Commission shall, in its                  resources collected for the entire year, on the basis of the
preliminary draft budget, fix the percentage corre-               data at its disposal at that time.
sponding to the financial contributions of those Member
States on the basis of the proportion of their GNP to the
sum total of the gross national products of the Member            If appreciable differences from the original estimates
States, and shall determine the amount of that part of            appear, the former may give rise to a letter of
the budget to be financed by VAT resources at the                 amendment to the draft budget for the following
uniform rate and by financial contributions.                      financial year.
These figures shall be approved in accordance with
budgetary procedure.                                                                       TITLE VII
                                                                          Provisions concerning inspection measures
                           Article 14
                                                                                            Article 17
 1. The definition of GNP at market prices shall be
that given in Articles 1 and 2 of the Directive of 24 June         1. Member States shall take all requisite measures to
 1988.                                                            ensure that the amount corresponding to the entitlements
 ---pagebreak--- 1. 10. 88                               Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 255/11
established under Articles 1 and 2 are made available to           (b) in the monthly statement of accounts referred to in
the Commission as specified in this Regulation.                         Article 6 (3), the amounts entered in the accounts
                                                                        which relate to irregularities or delays in the estab-
                                                                        lishment, entry in the accouns and making available
2.     Member States shall be free from the obligation to               of own resources, discovered during the inspections
place at the disposal of the Commission the amounts                     referred to above, must be identified by means of
corresponding to established entitlements solely if, for                appropriate notes.
reasons of force majeure these amounts have not been
collected. Moreover, in exceptional cases, Member States
shall be entitled not to make these amounts available to           3.     Without prejudice to the inspections referred to in
the Commission if, after a detailed examination of the             paragraph 2, the Commission may itself undertake
relevant details of the case, it is found that recovery is         on-the-spot inspections. The officials appointed by the
definitively impossible, for reasons beyond their control.         Commission to undertake these inspections shall, to the
Cases involving amounts of over 10 000 ECU must be                 extent necessary for the correct application of this Regu-
mentioned in the report referred to in paragraph 3.                lation, have access to the supporting documents referred
                                                                   to in Article 3 and to all other related documents. The
                                                                   Commission shall give adequate notice of the inspection
3.     Member States shall notify the Commission, in
                                                                   to the Member State concerned by the inspection or on
six-monthly reports, of the outcome of their inspections
                                                                   whose territory the inspection is to take place. Represen-
and of comprehensive information and questions of
                                                                   tatives of the Member State concerned may take part in
principle concerning the most important problems arising
                                                                   these inspections.
out of the application of this Regulation and, in
particular, matters in dispute.
                                                                   4.     The inspection measures referred to in paragraphs
These reports shall be submitted within two months after           1, 2 and 3 shall not predjudice:
the end of each half year and shall include the number of
cases of irregularities concerning own resources and an
overall estimate of the own resources evaded.                      (a) the inspection measures undertaken by Member
                                                                        States in accordance with their own laws, regulations
                                                                        or administrative provisions;
The reports shall also describe serious irregularities
which could have a significant financial impact on own
resources.                                                         (b) the measures provided for in Articles 206, 206a and
                                                                        206b of the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                        Economic Community and Articles 180, 180a and
                           Article 18                                    180b of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
                                                                        Energy Community;
 1.    Member States shall conduct the checks and
 inquiries concerning the establishment and the making
 available of own resources. The Commission shall                  (c) the inspection arrangements made pursuant to
 exercise its powers as specified in this Article.                      Article 209 (c) of the Treaty establishing the
                                                                         European Economic Community and Article 183 (c)
                                                                         of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
 2.    Accordingly, Member States shall:                                 Energy Community.
 — carry out additional inspection measures at the
     Commission's request; in its request the Commission            5.    The Commission shall from time to time report to
     shall state the reasons for the additional inspection;         Parliament and to the Council on the functioning of the
                                                                    inspection arrangements.
 — associate the Commission, at its request, with the
     inspection measures which they carry out.
                                                                                            TITLE VIII
 Member States shall take all steps required to facilitate          Provisions relating to the Advisory Committee on the
 these inspection measures. Where the Commission is                                Communities' Own Resources
 associated with these measures, Member States shall
 place at its disposal the supporting documents referred to                                  Article 19
 in Article 3.
                                                                     1.    An Advisory Committee on the Communities' own
                                                                    resources, hereinafter called 'the Committee', is hereby
  In order to restrict additional inspection measures to the        set up.
  minimum:
  (a) the Commission may, in specific cases, request that           2.     The Committee shall consist of representatives of
      certain documents be forwarded to it;                         the Member States and of the Commission. Each
 ---pagebreak--- No C 255/12                           Official Journal of the European Communities                               1. 10. 88
Member State shall be represented on the Committee by                                     TITLE IX
not more than five officials.
                                                                                       Final provisions
The Chairman of the Committee shall be a representative
of the Commission.
                                                                                          Article 21
The secretariat services for the Committee shall be
                                                                The Commission shall, by 1 December 1992 at the latest,
provided by the Commission.
                                                                 submit a report on the implementation of this Regulation
                                                                 and, where appropriate, propose any necessary
3.    The Committee       shall adopt its own     rules of
                                                                 amendments.
procedure.
                         Article 20                                                       Article 22
1.    The Committee shall examine the questions raised          The Commission, after consulting the Committee, shall
by its chairman on his own initiative or at the request of       adopt the procedures for implementing this Regulation
the representative of a Member State, which concern the          as and when necessary.
application of this Regulation.
2.    At the request of the chairman, the Committee shall                                 Article 23
give its opinion within a time limit which the chairman         This Regulation shall enter into force on the day
may set according to the urgency of the matter in hand,          following its publication in the Official Journal of the
if necessary, by taking a vote.                                  European Communities.
The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in
addition, each Member State shall have the right to              It shall have effect from 1 January 1989.
request that its position also be recorded in these
minutes.                                                         Regulation No 2891/77 is hereby repealed.
The Commission shall take full account of the
Committee's opinion. It shall inform the Committee of           This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
the manner in which it has done so.                             directly applicable in all Member States.