CELEX: 31977R1293
Language: en
Date: 1977-06-14 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 1293/77 of 14 June 1977 on the opening, allocation and administration of a Community tariff quota for certain eels falling within subheading ex 03.01 A II of the Common Customs Tariff (1 July 1977 to 30 June 1978)

17. 6. 77                           Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 149/ 1
                                                            I
                                          (Acts whose publication is obligatory)
                                   COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1293/77
                                                    of 14 June 1977
             on the opening, allocation and administration of a Community tariff quota for
             certain eels falling within subheading ex 03.01 A II of the Common Customs
                                         Tariff (1 July 1977 to 30 June 1978)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                     Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all
COMMUNITIES,                                                    importers in the Member States equal and uninter­
                                                                rupted access to the abovementioned quota and unin­
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European           terrupted application of the rate laid down for that
Economic Community, and in particular Article 28                quota to all imports of the products concerned into all
thereof,                                                        Member States until the quota has been used up ;
                                                                whereas, in the light of these principles, the Commu­
                                                                nity nature of the quota can be respected by allocating
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              the tariff quota among the Member States listed
                                                                below ; whereas statistics available for these products
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia­            do not give a clear picture of the market situation for
ment (!),                                                       them ; whereas, therefore, it is not possible to allocate
                                                                the quota among the Member States on the basis of
                                                                import trends for the relevant products over the past
Whereas eel fishing has been prohibited or has                  few years ; whereas, however, according to the esti­
become impossible in certain Community production               mates put forward by the Member States, initial shares
centres ; whereas this has led to a drop in Community           may be fixed at the quantities set out in Article 2 ;
production of eels in general and particularly of fresh
eels (live or dead), chilled or frozen , falling within
subheading ex 03.01 A II of the Common Customs
Tariff, intended for curing or skinning or for use in           Whereas, in order to take into account import trends
the industrial manufacture of products falling within            for the products concerned, the quota amount should
heading No 16.04 ; whereas the processing industries            be divided into two tranches, the first tranche being
in the Community consequently depend to a large                 allocated, and the second forming a reserve intended
extent on imports for their supplies of eels ; whereas          subsequently to cover the requirements of the
from 1 July 1977 to 30 June 1978 the application of              Member States which have used up their initial
the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duty should                 shares ; whereas, in order to ensure a certain degree of
therefore be suspended totally on imports of the rele­           security for importers, the first tranche of the Commu­
vant products up to an appropriate quantitative limit ;          nity tariff quota should be fixed at a level which,
whereas, the introduction of a Community measure of              under present circumstances, may be approximately
 this nature is unlikely to harm Community produc­               80 % of the quota amount ;
 tion ;
Whereas current demand not met by Community                      Whereas the initial shares may be used up at different
 production which must therefore be met by imports,              rates ; whereas, in order to take this fact into account
 can be estimated at 6 100 tonnes for the period from            and to avoid any break in continuity, any Member
 1 July 1977 to 30 June 1978 ; whereas a tariff quota            State which has almost used up its total initial share
 for the relevant types of eel should therefore be               should draw an additional share from the reserve ;
 opened for this period on the conditions set out                whereas this must be done by each Member State as
 above ; whereas the fixing of the quota volume at this          and when each of its additional shares is almost
 level does not, however, prevent its readjustment               entirely used up, and repeated as many times as the
 during the quota period ;                                       reserve allows ; whereas the initial additional shares
                                                                 must be valid until the end of the quota period ;
(<) OJ No C 133 , 6. 6 . 1977, p. 47 .                           whereas this method of administration requires close
 ---pagebreak--- No L 149/2                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               17. 6. 77
cooperation between Member States and the Commis­                                      Article 3
sion, which must be able to keep account of the
extent to which the quota amount has been used up             1.    If 90 % or more of a Member State's initial share
and to inform the Member States accordingly ;                as fixed in Article 2 ( 1 ), or of that share minus any
                                                             portion returned to the reserve where Article 5 has
Whereas if, at a given date in the quota period, a
considerable balance remains in one or other Member
                                                             been applied, has been used up, that Member State
                                                             shall forthwith, by notifying the Commission, draw a
State it is essential, to prevent a part of the Commu­
                                                             second share, to the extent that the reserve so permits,
nity tariff quota from remaining unused in one
Member State while it could be used in others, that
                                                             equal to 1 5 % of its initial share, rounded up as neces­
                                                             sary to the next whole number.
that Member State should return a significant propor­
tion thereof to the reserve ;
                                                              2.    If, after its initial share has been exhausted,
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium, the                   90 % or more of the second share drawn by a
Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of            Member State has been used up, that Member State
Luxembourg are united within and jointly represented         shall forthwith, by notifying the Commission, draw a
by the Benelux Economic Union, any measure                    third share equal to 7-5 % of its initial share, rounded
concerning the administration of the shares allocated         up as necessary to the next whole number, to the
to that economic union may be carried out by any              extent that the reserve so permits.
one of its members,
                                                              3.    If, after its second share has been exhausted,
                                                              9.0 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                 State has been used up, that Member State shall, in
                                                              the manner provided in paragraph 2, draw a fourth
                                                              share equal to the third.
                         Article 1
                                                             This procedure shall apply until the reserve is used
1 . During the period from 1 July 1977 to 30 June             up.
1978 a Community tariff quota of 6 100 tonnes shall
be opened for fresh eels (live or dead) chilled or
frozen, falling within subheading ex 03.01 All of the         4.    By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 , 2 and
Common Customs Tariff, intended for curing or skin­           3, Member States may draw lesser shares than those
ning or for use in the industrial manufacture of              specified therein if there are grounds for believing
products falling within heading No 16.04, under               that those specified may not be used in full. They
                                                              shall inform the Commission of their reasons for
conditions to be determined by the competent authori­
ties .                                                        applying this paragraph.
2. Within the limits of this tariff quota, the
Common Customs Tariff duty shall be totally                                            Article 4
suspended.
                                                              Additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3 shall be
                         Article 2                            valid until 30 June 1978 .
1.     A first tranche of 4 900 tonnes of this Commu­
nity tariff quota shall be allocated among the Member
States. Member States' shares, which, subject to Article                               Article 5
5, shall be valid from 1 July 1977 to 30 June 1978,
shall consist of the following amounts :                      Member States shall return to the reserve, not later
                                                              than 1 May 1978, the unused portions of their initial
                                         (in tonnes)          shares which, on 15 April 1978, are in excess of 20 %
        Benelux                             1 600             of the initial amounts. They may return a greater
        Denmark                               996             portion if there are grounds for believing that such
        Germany                             2 020             portion may not be used in full.
        France                                 56
        Ireland                                 4
                                                              Member States shall notify the Commission, not later
        Italy                                  24
                                                              than 1 May 1978 , of the total quantities of the
        United Kingdom                        200
                                                              products in question imported up to and including 15
                                                              April 1978, and charged against the Community
2.     The second tranche of 1 200 tonnes shall consti­       quota, and of any portion of their initial shares
tute the reserve .                                            returned to the reserve .
 ---pagebreak---  17 . 6. 77                         Official Journal of the European Communities                        No L 149 / 3
                         Article 6                            3 . Member States shall charge imports of the
                                                              products in question against their shares as and when
The Commission shall keep an account of the shares            the products are entered with the customs authorities
opened by the Member States pursuant to Articles 2            for home use .
and 3 and, as soon as it has been notified, shall inform
each State of the extent to which the reserve has been
                                                              4.     The extent to which a Member State has used up
used up.                                                      its share shall be determined on the basis of the
It shall inform the Member States, not later than 5           imports charged against that share in accordance with
May 1978 , of the amount still in reserve after amounts       paragraph 3 .
have been returned thereto pursuant to Article 5.
                                                                                      Article 8
It shall ensure that the drawing which exhausts the
reserve does not exceed the balance available, and to
                                                              At the Commission's request, Member States shall
this end shall notify the amount of that balance to the
                                                              inform it of the imports actually charged against their
Member State making the last drawing.                         shares .
                         Article 7
                                                                                     Article 9
1.     Member     States  shall   take    all    appropriate
measures    to  ensure   that   additional    shares  drawn   Member States and the Commission shall cooperate
pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that           closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied
imports may be charged without interruption against           with .
their aggregate shares of the Community quota.
2. Member States shall ensure that importers of the                                  Article 10
products in question established in their territory have
free access to the shares allocated to them .                 This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 July 1977.
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
               Done at Luxembourg, 14 June 1977.
                                                                          For the Council
                                                                            The President
                                                                              T. BENN