CELEX: 31971R0304
Language: en
Date: 1971-02-11 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 304/71 of the Commission of 11 February 1971 on simplification of the Community transit procedure for goods carried by rail

Official Journal of the European Communities                                     63
12.2.71                              Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 35/31
                              REGULATION (EEC) No 304/71 OF THE COMMISSION
                                                   of 11 February 1971
                   on simplification of the Community transit procedure for goods carried by rail
THE     COMMISSION      OF       THE EUROPEAN       COM­        HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
MUNITIES,
                                                                                         TITLE I
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community;                                                       General Provisions
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No
                                                                                         Article 1
542/69* of 18 March 1969 on Community transit,
and in particular Article 58 ( 1 ) (c) thereof;
                                                                Formalities under the Community transit procedure
Whereas the railway authorities have set up, for their          shall be simplified in accordance with the following
own purposes, an accounting system whereby it is                provisions for carriage of goods effected by railway
possible to ascertain the movement of goods by rail             authorities    under    cover    of   an   International
over the various networks concerned under cover of              Consignment Note (CIM) or International Express
an International Consignment Note (CIM) or of an                Parcels Consignment Note (TI Ex)
International Express Parcels Consignment Note (TI
Ex), provided for in the International Convention of
25 February 1961 concerning the carriage of goods                                       Article 2
by rail ;
Whereas      customs  authorities    can   effect  overall      The     International    Consignment     Note   or   the
customs control of transit operations within the                International Express Parcels Consignment Note shall
Community by using the records held at the                      be treated :
accounting offices of the railway authorities ;
                                                                ( a) with respect to goods referred to in Article 1 (2)
Whereas it is possible, therefore, to simplify                       of Regulation (EEC) No 542/69, as a TI
Community transit procedure in international rail                    declaration or document as the case may be;
transport by providing, in . particular, that
International Consignment Notes and International               ( b) with respect to goods referred to in Article 1 (3 )
Express Parcels Consignment Notes are to be treated                  of the above-mentioned Regulation, as a T2
as Community transit documents and that return of a                  declaration or document as the case may be.
 copy of those documents to the office of departure is
not required ;
                                                                                         Article 3
Whereas in view of the fact that International
Consignment Notes and International Express Parcels
Consignment Notes do not include copies intended                The railway authorities of each Member State shall
for statistical purposes and do not contain all the             make available to the customs authorities of their
information necessary for establishing transit                  country the records held at their accounting offices in
statistics in each of the Member States some special            order to facilitate effective customs control.
provisions must be adopted in this respect;
Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation                                     Article 4
 are in accordance with the Opinion of the Committee
 on Community Transit;
                                                                1 . The railway authorities which accept the goods
                                                                for carriage accompanied by an International
1 OJ No L 77, 29.3.1969, p . 1 .                                Consignment Note or International Express Parcels
 ---pagebreak---  64                                 Official Journal of the European Communities
 Consignment Note shall be the principal as regards            2. With respect to goods referred to in Article
 the transit procedure concerned.                              1 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 542/69, the office of
                                                               departure shall indicate, on copy No 3 of the
 2.    The railway authorities of the Member State             Consignment Note, that the goods to which that
                                                               document refers      are carried under the . external
  through whose territory goods enter the Com­
 munity shall be the principal as regards the transit          Community transit procedure.
 procedure concerning goods accepted for carriage by           To this end, it shall clearly mark the symbol TI in
 the railway authorities of a third country.                   the space 'description of goods'.
                                                               3 . All copies of the Consignment Note shall be
                        Article 5
                                                               returned to the party concerned.
 The . railway authorities shall ensure that                   4. With respect to goods referred to in Article
 consignments carried under the Community transit              1 (3 ) of Regulation (EEC) No 542/69, each Member
 procedure are identified by labels marked                     State may provide that the goods may, under
 'Douane/Zoll/Dogana'. Such labels shall be attached           conditions which it shall determine, be placed under
 to the Consignment Note or Express Parcels                    Internal Community transit procedure without it
 Consignment Note and to the railway wagon, where              being necessary to submit the Consignment Note
 a full load is concerned, or to the package or                covering the goods concerned to the office of
 packages in other cases.                                      departure.
                                                               5.    The customs office for the station of destination
                        Article 6
                                                               shall act as office of destination. However, if the
                                                               goods are entered for home use or placed under some
 Where the contract of carriage is modified with the           other customs procedure at an intermediate station,
 result that :                                                 the competent office for that station shall act as office
                                                               of destination­
— a carriage operation which was to end outside the
     Community ends within the Community;
                                                                                       Article 8
— a carriage operation which was to end within the
     Community ends outside the Community;
                                                               As a general rule; and account being taken of
the railway authorities shall not perform the modified         identification measures applied by the railway
contract except with the prior agreement of the office         authorities, the office of departure shall not seal the
of departure;                                                  means of transport or the packages.
Where the contract of carriage is modified with the
result that the carriage operation is ended within the                                 Article 9
Member State of departure, performance of the
modified contract shall be subject to conditions to be
determined by the customs authorities of that Mem­             1 . The railway authorities of the Member State in
ber State .        •                                          which the competent office of destination is situated
                                                               shall forward to the latter copies Nos 2 and 3 of the
                                                               Consignment Note.
In all other cases, the railway authorities may
perform the modified contract; they shall forthwith
inform the office of departure of the modification            2.     The office of destination shall return, without
made.                                                          delay, to the railway authorities copy No 2 after
                                                              stamping it and shall retain copy No 3 .
                        TITLE II
                                                                                       TITLE III
      Movement of goods between Member States                       Carriage of goods to or from third countries
                       Article 7                                                      Article 10
1 . If a carriage operation starts and is to end              1 . If a carriage operation starts within the Com­
within the Community, the Consignment Note shall              munity and is to end outside the Community,
be submitted to the office of departure.                      Articles 7 and 8 shall apply.
 ---pagebreak---                                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                        65
 2.    The customs office for the frontier station              under cover of the International Express Parcels
 through which the goods in transit leave the territory          Consignment Note.
 of the Community shall act as office of destination.
                                                                                          Article 15
 3.    There are formalities to be carried out at the
 office of destination.                                         With respect to carriage operations effected under
                                                                 cover      of   the    International    Express    Parcels
                         Article 11
                                                                Consignment Note :
                                                                ( a ) the endorsement required under Article 7 (2)
 1 . Where a carriage operation starts outside the                    shall be entered in the copy known as the
 Community and is to end within the Community, the
                                                                       waybill ;
 customs office for the frontier station through which
 the goods enter the Community shall act as office of
 departure. No formalities need be carried out at the           (b) the copy known as the waybill and a copy of the
 office of departure.                                                 International Express Parcels Consignment Note
                                                                      showing if appropriate the endorsement referred
2.     The customs office for the station of destination
                                                                      to in ( a) above shall, in application of Article 9,
                                                                      be forwarded to the office of destination which
 shall act as office of destination. However, if the                   shall return, without delay, to the railway
 goods are entered for home use or placed under some                   authorities the copy known as the waybill after
 other customs procedure at an intermediate station                   having stamped that copy and the copy retained
 the competent office for that station shall act as office            by that office.
 of destination .
 The formalities prescribed by Article 9 shall be
 carried out at the office of destination .
                                                                                          TITLE V
                        Article 12                                             Provisions relating to statistics
 1.    Where a carriage operation starts and is to end                                   Article 16
 outside the Community, the customs offices which
 are to act as office of departure and office of                1 . For the purpose of compiling transit statistics,
 destination shall be as laid down in Article 11 ( 1 ) and      the railway authorities shall supply the competent
 Article 10 (2) respectively.                                   department for external trade statistics in the
                                                                Member State of departure with the necessary
2.     No formalities need be carried out at the offices        information regarding each operation under the
 of departure or destination .                                  Community transit procedure in which, pursuant to
                                                                Article 4, they have acted as principals .
                        Article 13
                                                                2.      Until a Community procedure is introduced for
                                                                the purpose of applying paragraph 1 and of
 Goods being the subject of a carriage operation to
which Article 11 ( 1 ) or Article 12 ( 1 ) applies shall be
                                                                transmitting       information     to     the    competent
                                                                department for external trade statistics in Member
considered as moving under the external Community
                                                                States, other than the Member State of departure, the
 transit procedure unless movement certificate DD3 or
                                                                territory of which is crossed during any given
 an internal Community transit document, drawn up               operation under the Community transit procedure
for the purpose of establishing the Community nature            each Member State shall determine the method
of the goods concerned, is submitted in respect of              whereby the national railway authorities are to supply
them .
                                                                the necessary information to the competent national
                                                                government department.
                         TITLE IV
                                                               3.       The railway authorities shall not, for the
                                                               purpose of applying paragraphs 1 and 2, require the
         Provisions relating to express packages                consignor to supply in addition to the information
                                                                shown in the International Consignment Note or
                         Article 14                            International Express Parcels Consignment Note,
                                                                further information apart from the name of the
Subject to Article 15 , the provisions of Titles II and         countries of consignment and destination of the
III of this Regulation shall also apply to carriage             goods carried .
 ---pagebreak--- 66                                   Official Journal of the European Communities
                         TITLE VI                                                      Article 19
                      Final provisions                          This Regulation shall not preclude the use of the
                                                                procedure provided for in Regulation (EEC) No
                         Article 17                             542/69 .
The provisions of Titles II and III of Regulation
(EEC) No 542/69 which have no further purpose for               In such case, Articles 3 and 5 shall nevertheless apply.
the application of this Regulation, in particular
Articles 12 (3 ) to (6), 17, 23 , 26 ( 1 ), and 41 thereof,     Furthermore, copy No 2 of the Consignment Note or
shall not apply.                                                the copy known as the waybill of the International
                                                                Express Parcels Consignment Note shall be submitted
                         Article 18                             at one of the customs offices for the different stations
                                                                involved in the operation under the Community
The provisions of this Regulation shall :                       transit procedure. That office shall apply its stamp
                                                                after ascertaining that carriage of the goods is
( a) not prejudice the application of Regulation (EEC)
                                                                covered by one or more Community transit
     No 2315/691 on the use of Community transit                documents .
     documents      for    the   purpose      of  applying
     Community measures for verifying the use
     and/or destination of goods ;
(b ) in no way affect obligations relating to                                           Article 20
     formalities concerning export, re-export, import
     or re-import.                                              This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 July 1971 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 11 February 1971 .
                                                                                    For the Commission
                                                                                        The President
                                                                                   Franco M. MALFATTI
 3 OJ No L 295 , 24.11.1969, p. 14.