CELEX: 51975PC0231
Language: en
Date: 1975-05-30
Title: Proposal for a REGULATION (EEC) OF THE COUNCIL 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 1976 (submitted to the Council by the Commission)

ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES
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DOCUMENTS "COM"
COM (75) 231
Vol. 1975/0084
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 ---pagebreak---       COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                               .     /
                                                       COM(75)231 final.
                                                       Brussels , 20 May 1975
                                     Proposal for a
                            REGULATION ( EEC ) OF THE COUNCIL
            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 1976
                     ( submitted to the Council by the Commission )
COM(75 ) 231 final .
 ---pagebreak---                            EXPLA.TÎATOIîY MEMORANDUM
 During recent years , eel fishing has been prohibited, m certain
 Community production centres or has become impossible as a result .
 of pollution .  Efforts have been made to increase production in other
 centres in order at least to compensate for the loss in available
 supplies .  In spite of these efforts there has been a considerable
reduction in Community production , as a result of which it has beoome
necessary to import in order to maintain supplies to the processing
industries of the Member States .
This situation led the Council , aoting on a proposal from the Commission,
to open beginning in 1971 » a nil-duty Community tariff quota for oertain
types of fresh eels ( live or dead), chilled or frozen, falling within
subheading No ex 03.01 of the Common Customs Tariff .
Since then the situation on the market in question has not improved
noticeably .   It therefore seems desirable to open a further Community
tariff quota for 197 ^ for an appropriate quantity of eels , while bearing
in mind the fact that Community production may rise# This is the objeot
of the proposal annexed hereto .
The Member States * experts who participated in the consultative
meeting of the "Economic Tariff Problems " Group ( lVl8 April 1975 )
expressed agreement in principle to the scheme for allocation of
shares proposed by the Commission in the framework of the regulation
annexed .
                        C?
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                                         ANNEX
                                                 ■ - Proposal
                                 REGULATION (EEC) No                  OF THE COUNCIL
                                                   Of : "■ '.V      : " '
               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 1976"
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 '73               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 c>f fresh        be fixed at the following quantities :
eels (live or dead), chilled or frozen , falling within-
subheading ex 03.01 A 11 of the Common Customs
Tariff, intended for curing or skinning or for use in                  Bénélux                     1.^00 metric tons ,
the industrial manufacture of. products falling within                 Denmark                     1.000      metric     tons ,
heading No 16.04 ; whereas the processing industries                   Germany                     2.200      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     ton£ ,
for 1 976", the application of the autonomous Common                   Italy                            90    metric      tons ,
Customs Tariff duty should therefore be suspended                      United Kingdom                 200 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
 I 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 Community 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 5500 metric tons for I97<J ;                mined at a level – which , under , present circum­
whereas a tariff quota for the relevant types ,of eel            stances, may be 94 % of the quota amount ;
 should therefore be opened for 1 975 on the condi­
 tions set out above ; .
Whereas it is' in particular necessary to ensure to all          Whereas the initial shares ot 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 73 . 27 . 3 .. 1972, p. 14.                        continuity, it is important that any Member State
                                                                                                                           •••/t •
 ---pagebreak---                                                         - 2 -                                                              ANNEX
having used up almost the whole of its initial shares          amounts :
should draw an additional quota share from the                        Benelux                   l.H-00  metric       tons ,
reserve ; whereas this must be done by each Member                    Denmark       . '         1.000   metric       tons ,
State as and when each of its additional shares is                    Germany                   2.200   metric       tons ,
almost entirely used up, and repeated as many times                   France                       100   metric      tons ,
as the reserve allows ; whereas the initial and addi­                 Ircland                       10   metric      tons ,
tional shares must be available for use until the end of              Italy                         90   metric      tons ,
the quota period ; whereas this method of administra­                 United Kingdoni              200 metric tons .
tion calls for close cooperation between Member
States and the Commission which must, in particular,            2. The second tranche, amounting to S"00 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 ;
                                                                                          Artide 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            Arficle 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.
                                                                        If, after its second share has been exhausted,
H AS ADOPTKD 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
                           Article I                              fourth share equal to the third .
                                                                  This process shall be applied until reserve is
 1.     For the period from 1 January 197d to 31                  exhausted .
 December 1976; a Community tariff quota of SSOO
 metric tons shall be opened for fresh eels (live or              4. Without prejudice to paragraphs I , 2 and the
dead) chilled or frozen , falling within subheading ex            Member States may proceed to draw shares smaller
 0.5.01 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.
                                                                                         - Artide 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 he valid until 31 December 1976*.
 tariff quota.                             "
                                                                                           Artide 5
        Within the limits of this tariff quota, the new           The Member States shall return to the
 Member States shall apply duties calculated in accor­
 dance with the relevant provisions of the Act of Acces­          reserve , not later than 1 September 1976 ,
 sion .                                                           the unused portion of their initial share
                                                                  which , on 15 August 1976 , is in excess.-;                                j
                                                                  of 20 % of the initial amount . They shall                                 s
                           Anide
                                     )                            return a larger quantity if there are >
  I.     \ first tranche, amounting to 5 000 metric tons,
                                                                  reasons to consider that such quantity                                 '   I
 shall lie allocated among the Member States ; the                might not be used .                                                        j
 share;- which , subject to Article' 5, shall be valid until
  31 December IV7& shall consist of the following                 Each Member State shall, --not later than                                >|
                                                                  1 September 1976 , notify the Commission of "'|
                                                                ; the total imports of the products concer-                                 j
                                                                   ned effected up to 15 August 1976 inclusive ,;
                                                                   and charged against the Community quota                                   I
                                                                                                                             • f •/• • •
 ---pagebreak---                                                        - 3 -                                               ANNEX
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 I 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 5 September
                                                                                       Article 8
1 97/5", 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
                        Artide 7                              erate closely in order to ensure that this Regulation is
                                                              observed .
 I . 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.                I97tf!
               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
               States.                      -
               Donc at
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                                                                            The Président