CELEX: 31974R2659
Language: en
Date: 1974-10-15 00:00:00
Title: Regulation (EEC) No 2659/74 of the Council of 15 October 1974 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 for 1975

22. 10 . 74                              Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 285/ 1
                                                                  I
                                               (Acts whose publication is obligcitoty)
                                 REGULATION ( EEC) No 2659/74 OF THE COUNCIL
                                                        of 15 October 1974
               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 for 1975
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                         to the abovementioned quota and uninterrupted appli­
 COMMUNITIES,                                                        cation of the rates laid down for that quota to all
                                                                     imports of the products concerned into all Member
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               States until the quota has been used up ; whereas,
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 28                    having regard to these principles, the Community
 thereof ;
                                                                     nature of the quota can be respected by allocating the
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ;                 tariff quota among the Member States listed below ;
                                                                     whereas statistics available for these products do not
 Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parlia­                give a clear picture of the market situation for them ;
 ment ;                                                              whereas, therefore, it is not possible to allocate the
                                                                     quota among the Member States on the basis of
 Whereas eel fishing has been prohibited or has                      imports of the relevant products over the last few
 become impossible in certain Community production                   years ; whereas, however, according to the estimates
 centres ; whereas this has led to a drop in Community               put forward by the Member States, initial shares may
 production of eels in general and particularly of fresh             be fixed at the following quantities :
 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                     Benelux                     1 1 50 metric tons ,
 the industrial manufacture of products falling within                     Denmark                       600 metric tons ,
 heading No 16.04 ; whereas the processing industries                      Germany                    3 000 metric tons,
 in the Community consequently depend to a large                           France                        100 metric tons ,
 extent on imports for their supplies of eels ; whereas                    Ireland                         10 metric tons,
 for 1975, the application of the autonomous Common                        Italy                         100 metric tons ,
 Customs Tariff duty should therefore be suspended                         United Kingdom               250 metric tons ;
 totally on imports of the relevant products up to an
 appropriate quantitative limit ; whereas, within this
 limit, the new Member States should apply customs                   Whereas in order to take into account import trends
 duties as provided in the Act of Accession (') ; whereas            for the products concerned in the different Member
 however, the United Kingdom has declared that from                  States, the quota amount should be divided into two
  1 January 1974 it will align its duties directly on those          tranches, the first tranche being allocated among the
 of the Common Customs Tariff ; whereas , the intro­                 Member States, and the second forming a reserve
 duction of a Community measure of this nature is                    intended ultimately to cover the requirements of the
 unlikely to harm Commifnity production ;                            Member States which have used up their initial
                                                                     shares ; whereas, in order to ensure a certain degree of
 Whereas current demand not met by Community                         security to importers in each Member State, the first
 production , which must therefore be met by imports,                tranche of the Community quota should be deter­
 can be estimated at 6 100 metric tons for 1975 ;
                                                                     mined at a level — which , under present circum­
 whereas a tariff quota for the relevant types of eel                stances, may be 85 % of the quota amount ;
»should therefore be opened for 1975 on the condi­
 tions set out above ;
 Whereas it is in particular necessary to ensure to all              Whereas the initial shares of the Member States may
 Community importers equal and uninterrupted access                  be used up at different times ; whereas, in order to
                                                                     take this fact into account and avoid any break in
 (>) OJ No L 7 .?, 27 . 3 . 1972, p. 14 .                            continuity, it is important that any Member State
 ---pagebreak--- No L 285/2                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                    22. 10 . 74
having used up almost the whole of its initial shares              amounts :
should draw an additional quota share from the                             Benelux                        1 1 50 metric  tons,
reserve ; whereas this must be done by each Member                         Denmark                           600 metric  tons ,
State as and when each of its additional shares is
                                                                           Germany                         3 000 metric  tons ,
almost entirely used up, and repeated as many times                        France                            100 metric  tons ,
as the reserve allows ; whereas the initial and addi­                      Ireland                             10 metric tons,
tional shares must be available for use until the end of
                                                                           Italy                             100 metric  tons,
the quota period ; whereas this method of administra­                      United Kingdom                    250 metric tons .
tion calls for close cooperation between Member
States and the Commission which must, in particular,               2. The second tranche, amounting to 890 metric
be able to observe the extent to which the quota                   tons, shall make up the reserve .
amount is used and inform Member States thereof ;
                                                                                               Art icli' 3
Whereas, since if, at a specified date in the quota                 1.      If 90 % or more of the initial share of a Member
period, a considerable balance remains in one or other             State, as laid down in Article 2(1 ), or 90% of that
Member State it is essential that that Member State                share less the amount returned into the reserve , where
return a large amount of it back into the reserve, in              Article 5 has been applied , has been exhausted, that
order to avoid a part of the Community quota                       Member State shall proceed without delay, by noti­
remaining unused in one Member State when it could                 fying the Commission , to draw a second share equal
be used in others ;                                                to 15% of its initial share, rounded up to the next
                                                                   unit where appropriate, to the extent that the amount
Whereas, since the Kingdom of Belgium , the                         in the reserve allows .
 Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of                  2.      If, after its initial share has been exhausted ,
 Luxembourg are united in and represented by the                    90 % or more of the second share drawn by a
 Benelux Economic Union , all transactions concerning               Member State has been used , that Member State shall
 the administration of shares granted to the abovemen­
                                                                    proceed without delay, by notifying the Commission ,
 tioned Economic Union may be carried out by any of                 to draw a third share equal to 7-5 % of its initial
 its members,
                                                                    share, rounded up to the next unit where appropriate,
                                                                    to the extent that the amount in the reserve allows .
                                                                    3.       If, after its second share has been exhausted ,
 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                      90 % or more of the third share drawn by a Member
                                                                    State has been used , that Member State shall proceed,
                                                                    in the manner specified in paragraph 2 to draw a
                           Art it'll- 1                              fourth share equal to the third .
                                                                    This       process shall   be applied         until  reserve   is
  1.     For the period from 1 January 1975 to 31                   exhausted .
  December 1975 , a Community tariff quota of 6 100
  metric tons shall be opened for fresh eels (live or                4.      Without prejudice to paragraphs I , 2 and 3, the
 dead) chilled or frozen , falling within subheading ex              Member States may proceed to draw shares smaller
 03.01 A II of the Common Customs Tariff, intended                   than those fixed in those paragraphs, if there is reason
  for curing or skinning or for use in the industrial                to believe that those shares might not be used up.
  manufacture of products falling within heading No                  They shall inform the Commission of the reasons
  16.04, under conditions to be determined by the                    which led them to apply this paragraph .
  competent authorities .
                                                                                                Art icIt' 4
  2.     The Common Customs Tariff duties shall be
                                                                     The additional shares drawn pursuant to Article 3
  totally suspended on products imported under this                  shall be valid until 31     December 1975 .
  tariff quota .
                                                                                                Art iclf 5
  3.     Within the limits of this tariff quota , the new
  Member States shall apply duties calculated in accor­               If, by 15 August 1975 , a Member State has not used
  dance with the relevant provisions of the Act of Acces­            up its initial share , it shall , not later than 10
  sion .                                                             September 1975, return to the reserve the unused
                                                                      portion of this share in excess of 20 % of the initial
                                                                      amount . It may return a larger quantity if there are
                           /1 rt iclf 2                               reasons to consider that such quantity might not be
                                                                      used .
   1.    A first tranche, amounting to 5 210 metric tons^             Each Member State shall , not later than 10 September
  shall be allocated among the Member States ; the                     1975 , notify the Commission of the total imports of
   shares which , subject to Article 5 , shall be valid until         the products concerned effected up to 15 August 1975
   31 December 1975 , shall consist of the following                  inclusive, and charged against the Community quota
 ---pagebreak--- 22 . 10 . 74                       Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 285/3
and, where appropriate, the proportion of its initial         2.       Each Member State shall ensure that importers
share that is being returned to the reserve .                 of the product in question established in its territory
                                                              have free access to the shares allocated to it.
                        Article 6
                                                              3 . The Member States shall charge imports of the
The Commission shall keep account of the shares               said product against their share as and when the
opened by Member States in accordance with Articles           product is entered for home use .
2 and 3 and shall inform each of them of the extent
                                                              4.      The extent to which a Member State has used up
to which the reserve has been used as soon as it              its share shall be determined on the basis of the
receives the notifications .
                                                              imports charged in accordance with paragraph 3 .
The Commission shall , not later than 15 September
                                                                                        Article 8
1975, notify Member States of the amount in the
reserve after the return of shares pursuant to Article 5.     Member       States shall   inform   the Commission   at
The Commission shall ensure that any drawing which            regular intervals of imports charged against their
                                                              shares .
uses up the reserve is limited to the balance available
and, for this purpose, shall specify the amount thereof
                                                                                        Article 9
to the Member State which makes the final drawing.
                                                              The Member States and the Commission shall coop­
                        Article 7                             erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
                                                              observed .
 1 . The Member States shall take all appropriate
measures to ensure that supplementary shares drawn                                      Article 10
pursuant to Article 3 are opened in such a way that
charges may be made, without interruption , against           This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
their cumulative shares of the Community quota .               1 975 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Luxembourg, 1 5 October 1 974.
                                                                            For the Con mil
                                                                              The President
                                                                             B. DESTREMAU