CELEX: 31978R1439
Language: en
Date: 1978-06-19 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 1439/78 of 19 June 1978 on direct cooperation between the bodies designated by Member States to verify compliance with Community and national provisions in the wine sector

No L 173/ 2                             Official Journal of the European Communities                              29 . 6 . 78
                                       COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1439/78
                                                        of 19 June 1978
              on direct cooperation between the bodies designated by Member States to verify
                  compliance with Community and national provisions in the wine sector
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                        context, provision should be made for requesting the
COMMUNITIES,                                                       assistance of a qualified expert and for cooperation
                                                                   between the competent bodies of the various Member
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              States, particularly if other measures have not made it
Economic Community,                                                possible to establish that the product in question
                                                                   complies with the wine provisions ;
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No
816/70 of 28 April 1970 laying down additional provi­
                                                                   Whereas, with a view to introducing a simple proce­
sions for the common organization of the market in
                                                                   dure for this cooperation , provision should be made
wine ('), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No                   for regular checks on the genuineness of entries on
2560/77 (2), and in particular Article 39a (2) thereof,            accompanying documents and in turnover records ;
                                                                   whereas for the same purpose it should be possible to
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ,                send samples for analysis or organoleptic examination
                                                                   directly to the laboratories entitled to perform this
Whereas, under Article 39a (2) of Regulation (EEC)                 task ; whereas it is therefore necessary to ensure coop­
No 816/70, the yecessary measures should be taken to               eration between the laboratory to which the samples
ensure uniform application of Community provisions                 have been sent and the competent body of the
                                                                   Member State concerned ;
in the wine sector, particularly as regards controls ;
whereas this aim can only be achieved by means of
direct cooperation between the bodies designated by
the Member States to verify compliance with the provi­             Whereas, in this same context, it should be laid down
sions in the wine sector, as provided for in paragraph             that, where the Commission has reasonable cause for
1 of the said Article ; whereas rules should be adopted            suspecting that irregularities have occurred in connec­
for contacts between those bodies, stipulating the                 tion with the production and marketing of one of the
subjects which may form part of such cooperation ;                 products referred to above, it shall inform the compe­
                                                                   tent body of the Member State concerned and request
                                                                   it to conduct an administrative inquiry ; whereas, for
Whereas the Member State on whose territory it is offi­
                                                                   the purposes of efficient coordination of cooperation
cially established that a product referred to in Article           between the competent bodies of the various Member
1 (2) of Regulation ( EEC) No 816/70 complies neither              States, duly authorized Commission agents should be
with the Community wine provisions nor the national                able to obtain particulars of an administrative nature
provisions adopted pursuant to the former should, of               of such an inquiry from the competent bodies of a
its own accord, inform the competent body of the                   Member State ;
Member State from whose geographical territory the
product comes and, if it does not originate there, the
competent body of the Member State of origin , if non­
compliance could be of specific interest to one or                 Whereas, in an effort to expedite the investigation of
more of the other Member States and would be of a                  fraud, the body to which a request is addressed in the
nature to give rise to administrative measures or judi­            context of cooperation between the competent bodies
cial proceedings ; whereas in order to stop the                    of the various      Member States    should  take   action
marketing of any product which does not comply                     thereon as quickly as possible ;
with the provisions in force throughout the Commu­
nity, provision should be made for the competent
bodies of all Member States concerned to be in­
                                                                   Whereas under Article 39a of Regulation ( EEC) No
formed ;                                                           816/70 Member States must take the necessary
                                                                   measures to ensure compliance with Community pro­
Whereas an exchange of any relevant information                    visions ; whereas, however, it is not inconceivable that ,
should be established between Member States so as to               in certain particular cases, a Member State may, for
render more effective the investigation of any infringe­           reasons of fact or of law, be unable to take action on
ments of the wine provisions ; whereas, in this                    all or part of a request addressed to it ; whereas, in
                                                                   order that cooperation may not be jeopardized by
(') OJ No L 99 , 5 . 5 . 1970 , p . I.                             cases of this nature, the reasons for such an attitude
(2 ) OJ No L 303 , 28 . 11 . 1977, p . 1 .                         should be given ;
 ---pagebreak---   29 . 6 . 78                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 173/ 3
 Whereas, in order to avert the possibility of informa­               and, if it does not originate there , the competent
  tion being disclosed to non-authorized persons, it is               body of the Member State of origin ;
  necessary that it be covered by professional secrecy ;         (b) the competent body of any Member State
                                                                      concerned, should the description or presentation
 Whereas, in order to ensure that the cooperation                     of the product be such as to mislead the
  referred to in this Regulation is effective, the proceed­           consumer .
  ings of the Management Committee for Wine should
 include a regular discussion between representatives of         The competent body of any Member State concerned
 the competent bodies of all the Member States ;
 whereas this discussion should on the one hand deal
                                                                 shall investigate whether batches of the product
                                                                 concerned were sent from its territory to other
 with current questions        relating to established or        Member States, in which case it shall provide the
 suspected infringements      of the provisions concerned        competent bodies of those Member States with all rele­
 and on the other hand        help to ensure the uniform         vant information .
 application of those         provisions throughout the
 Community ;
                                                                 2. The information referred to in paragraph 1 shall
                                                                 be accompanied by the relevant documentary or other
 Whereas certain provisions of this Regulation                   evidence as well as by an indication of any administra­
 concerning direct cooperation between the competent
 bodies of the various Member States necessitate the
                                                                 tive measures or judicial proceedings and shall
                                                                 concern in particular :
 drawing up of the detailed rules for its implementa­
 tion ,                                                         — the composition and organoleptic characteristics,
                                                                — the description and presentation ,
                                                                — compliance with the rules prescribed for the prepa­
 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                     ration and marketing,
                                                                of the product in question .
                           Article 1
                                                                                           Article 3
  1 . This Regulation lays down measures regarding
 the relations which the bodies (hereinafter called
 'competent bodies') designated by Member States to             The competent body of the Member State in whose
 verify compliance with Community provisions in the             geographical territory one of the products referred to
 wine sector shall maintain between themselves and              in Article 1 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 is
                                                                found :
 with the Commission for the prevention and investiga­
 tion of any infringement of the said Community provi­
                                                                (a) shall request the competent body of one or more
 sions and national provisions adopted pursuant
                                                                     other Member States to provide it with any rele­
 thereto (hereinafter called 'wine provisions').
                                                                     vant      information     concerning     the   points
                                                                     mentioned in the first to third indents of Article 2
 2. This Regulation shall not affect the application
                                                                     (2), if there is reasonable cause for suspecting that
 in the Member States of regulations relating to mutual
 assistance in criminal matters , mutual assistance in
                                                                     the product does not conform to the wine provi­
                                                                     sions .
customs matters, or tax regulations .
                                                                     The competent body so requested shall study in
                           Article 2                                 detail the grounds for suspicion brought to its
                                                                     attention and shall forward to the competent body
 1.     Where the competent body of a Member State in                making the request all information , documents or
whose geographical territory one of the products                     other evidence which may be relevant for clari­
referred to in Article 1 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No                  fying the issue ;
816/ 70 is found establishes that :
                                                                (b) may, if there is reasonable cause for suspecting
— the product does not comply with the wine provi­                   that the product does not conform to the wine
      sions , and                                                    provisions, request the competent body of the
                                                                     Member State from whose geographical territory
— this non-compliance is of specific interest to one                 the product comes and , if it does not originate
      or more Member States and is of a nature to give               there, the competent body of the Member State of
      rise to administrative measures or judicial proceed­           origin :
      ings,
                                                                     — to appoint a qualified expert and ensure that
it shall inform :
                                                                          he is present at supervisory operations ;
(a) the competent body of the Member State from                      — to take part in the concerted and rapid exami­
      whose geographical territory the product comes                      nation of one or more batches of the product.
 ---pagebreak--- No L 173/4                          Official Journal of the European Communities                              29 . 6 . 78
                         Article 4                             2. The Member State shall forward the report
                                                               prepared and the conclusions reached following the
1 . The competent body of the Member State in                  inquiry to the Commission .
whose geographical territory one of the products listed
in Article 1 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 is              3.     Paragraph 1 shall be without prejudice to the
found, shall request :                                         application of Article 6 of Council Regulation (EEC)
                                                               No 283/72 of 7 February 1972 concerning irregulari­
(a) the competent body of the Member State from                ties and the recovery of sums wrongly paid in connec­
     whose geographical territory the product comes            tion with the financing of the common agricultural
     and, if it does not originate there, the competent        policy and the organization of an information system
     body of the Member State of origin , to check the         in this field (').
     documents and the entries in the records, provided
     for under Article 29 of Regulation (EEC) No                                         Article 6
     816/70, where these are open to doubt ;
(b) if it deems it necessary, a laboratory as referred to      The competent body or laboratory to which a request
     in the second indent of paragraph 3 situated in the       of the type mentioned in the preceding Articles is
     geographical territory of the Member State from           addressed shall take action on it as quickly as possible .
     which the product comes or, if it does not origi­
     nate there, in the geographical territory of the          However, if such a request cannot be met, whether
     Member State of origin , to make an analytical and        wholly or partially, the competent body concerned
     organoleptic examination of a sample of the               shall without delay inform the competent body
     product which has been sent to it, where there is         making the request or, where Article 5 is concerned,
     reasonable cause for suspecting fraud .                   the Commission , stating the reasons .
2. When a sample is sent to the laboratory referred
                                                                                         Article 7
to in paragraph 1 (b), the competent body making the
 request shall at the same time inform the competent
body of the Member State in whose territory the labor­         The content of the exchange of information provided
atory is situated . The results of the tests referred to in    for in this Regulation shall be covered by professional
 paragraph 1 (b) and the interpretations of these tests        secrecy. It may not be communicated to any persons
 shall be forwarded to the competent body making the           other than those who, by reason of their duties in the
 request via the competent body of the Member State            Merpber States or in the institutions of the Communi­
 in whose territory the laboratory is situated .               ties, are required to have knowledge thereof for the
                                                               purposes of carrying out these duties.
 3.    Each Member State shall communicate to the
 Commission by 1 September 1978 :                                                        A rticle 8
— the names of the competent bodies and laborato­               Representatives of the Member States on the compe­
     ries referred to in the second subparagraph of            tent bodies referred to in Article 1      shall meet at
     Article 39a ( 1 ) of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 ;          regular intervals within the Management Committee
 — those of the abovementioned laboratories entitled            for Wine set up by Article 6 of Regulation No 24 (2 )
     to carry out analyses in accordance with para­             in order to discuss :
     graphs 1 (b) and 2.
                                                               — the problems raised by the application of this
                                                                    Regulation , and in particular to examine proce­
                                                                    dures for exchanging information and to draw
                          Article 5                                 conclusions ;
                                                               — any other problem relating to the uniform supervi­
 1.    Where the Commission has reasonable cause for                sion of Community provisions in the wine sector.
 suspecting that irregularities have occurred in one or
 more Member States in connection with the produc­
 tion and marketing of one of the products referred to                                   Article 9
 in Article 1 (2) of Regulation ( EEC) No 816/70, it
 shall inform the competent body concerned, which               If necessary, detailed rules for implementing this
 shall conduct an administrative inquiry.                       Regulation shall be adopted as regards :
                                                                — exchange of information, bearing in mind the
 The Commission may ask the competent body in                        need to proceed rapidly ;
 question to make particulars of an administrative
 nature of such an inquiry available to duly authorized         (') OJ No L 36, 10 . 2 . 1972, p. 1 .
 Commission agents.                                             (2) OJ No 30, 20. 4. 1962, p. 989/62.
 ---pagebreak--- 29 . 6 . 78                         Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 173 / 5
— sampling and dispatch of samples by the compe­                                     Article 10
     tent body making the request and also acceptance
     of responsibility for their costs of analysis by that    This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day
     body ;                                                   following its publication in the Official Journal of
                                                               the European Communities.
— acceptance of responsibility by the competent
     body making the request for the expenses incurred        It shall apply as from 1 September 1978 , with the
     by a qualified expert in a Member State other than       exception of Article 4 (3) which shall apply as from its
     that in whose service he is employed .                   entry into force .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Luxembourg, 19 June 1978 .
                                                                         For the Council
                                                                           The President
                                                                           P. DALSAGER