CELEX: 31976R3168
Language: en
Date: 1976-12-21 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 3168/76 of 21 December 1976 laying down the conditions for coupage and wine-making in the free zones on Community territory for wine products originating in third countries

No L 357/ 16                                Official Journal of the European Communities                              29 . 12. 76
                                           COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3168/76
                                                         of 21 December 1976
               laying down the conditions for coupage and wine-making in the free zones on
                       Community territory for wine products originating in third countries
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                           depending on the case, products of sound, fair and
COMMUNITIES,                                                          marketable quality originating in a third country or
                                                                      that they have been produced in accordance with
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                 Community provisions or those of the Member State
Economic Community,                                                   concerned ;
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No
816/70 of 28 April 1970 laying down additional provi­                 Whereas confusion between wines produced in free
sions for the common organization of the market in                    zones and Community wines should be avoided ;
wine (J ), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No                     whereas the issue of a certificate of origin by the
2842/76 (2), and in particular the third subparagraph                 competent authorities of the Member States for the
of Article 26 (4) and the third subparagraph of Article                products obtained in the free zones would be likely to
28 (2) thereof,                                                       create such confusion ; whereas it therefore appears
                                                                       necessary to provide, for the purpose of achieving the
                                                                       agricultural objective of this Regulation, that no certifi­
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                       cate of origin may be issued for the products thus
                                                                       obtained ;
Whereas the first subparagraph of Article 26 (4) and
the first subparagraph of Article 28 (2) of Regulation
(EEC) No 816/70 prohibit on Community territory,                       Whereas, to avoid confusion, the rules concerning the
except by way of derogation, coupage of a wine origi­                  description of the wines concerned should also be
nating in a third country with a Community wine and                    defined ; whereas, in this respect, a distinction should
coupage between wines originating in third countries,                  be drawn between mandatory information necessary
the making of wine from imported basic products and                    to identify the wines and optional information
the addition of such products to wine ; whereas,                       designed to indicate the special properties of the wine
however, as an exception to this rule, these operations                or to characterize them ,
are authorized in the free zones provided that the
wine obtained rherefrom is intended for re-consign­
ment to a third country ;
Whereas it should be noted that Council Directive
                                                                       HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
69/75/ EEC of 4 March 1969 on the harmonization of
provisions laid down by law, regulation or administra­
tive action relating to free zones (3), as last amended
by Directive 76/634/ EEC (4), continues to apply ;                                              Article 1
Whereas it is necessary in accordance with the third
subparagraph of Article 26 (4) and with the third                       1 . Any natural or legal person or any association of
subparagraph of Article 28 (2) of the abovementioned                   persons intending to effect in a free zone, within the
 Regulation, to adopt the provisions for the application               meaning of Directive 69/75/EEC, one of the following
 of these operations and the rules governing the                       operations :
 description of the wines produced in the free zones ;
                                                                       (a) coupage of wines originating in a third country
 Whereas, in order to ensure effective supervision of                       with Community wines ;
 operations in the free zones, it is necessary to provide
 for the prior authorization thereof by the Member
 State concerned and the setting up of means for super­                (b) coupage between wines originating in third coun­
 vising the movements of the products concerned ;                           tries ;
 Whereas, in order to prevent abuses, it must be laid                  (c) the making of wine in accordance with Commu­
 down that the products used for such operations are,                       nity provisions or, in the absence of such provi­
                                                                            sions, with national legislation in force as at 1
(') OJ  No   L 99 , 5 . 5 .  1970, p . 1 .
(2) OJ  No   L 327, 26 .    11 . 1976, p. 2.                                March 1977 and subject to Article 2 (2), from fresh
(3) OJ  No   L 58 , 8 . 3 .  1969, p. 11 .                                  grapes, grape must, grape juice, grape must in
(«) OJ  No   L 223, 16.     8 . 1976, p. 7.                                 fermentation , originating in third countries ;
 ---pagebreak--- 29 . 12. 76                        Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 357/ 17
     or                                                                                Article 2
(d) the addition to wine of concentrated grape juice,         1 . Only the following shall be used for the opera­
     grape must with fermentation arrested by addition       tions referred to in Article 1 ( 1 ) :
     of alcohol, of grape must or of concentrated grape
     must, originating in third countries ;                  — products of sound, fair and marketable quality orig­
                                                                  inating in third countries,
                                                                  or
shall submit an application to the appropriate authori­
ties designated by the Member States. Authorization          — Community products which have been produced
by those authorities to carry out the aforementioned              in accordance with Community provisions or, in
operations may be given only if the required assur­               the absence of such provisions, with the provisions
ances are given that the products resulting from the              of the Member State concerned .
operations in question will be kept in separate prem­
ises or separated from other products of the wine            2. In the context of the operation referred to in
sector stored in the free zone and that they will be         Article 1 ( 1 ) (c), increasing the alcoholic strength of
re-exported to a third country.                              the product concerned and also acidification and de­
                                                             acidification shall be prohibited.
2. The products resulting from the operations
referred to in paragraph 1 may not be placed in free
                                                                                       Article 3
circulation in the Community and must be subjected
to customs control which will ensure that they are
dispatched only to a third country and without further       No certificate of origin shall be issued in respect of
processing.                                                  products which have undergone the operations listed
                                                             in Article 1 .
3 . All persons concerned shall keep entry and exit
registers, in accordance with the provisions laid down                                 Article 4
pursuant to Article 29 (3) of Regulation (EEC) No
816/70, enabling the movements of those products              1 . The description of a wine resulting from the
and of the products referred to in paragraph 1 to be         operations referred to in Article 1 ( 1 ) shall include the
supervised. Entries in the registers shall be made on        following information :
the basis of the official documents drawn up by the
authorities of the third countries or, in the absence of     (a) the word 'wine' with or without a statement as to
such documents, on the basis of commercial docu­                  whether the wine is red, rose or white ;
ments .
                                                             (b) the nominal volume of the wine ;
These documents shall show at least :
                                                             (c) the name or business name of the natural or legal
(a) the name and address of the consignor ;                       person or association of persons who have
                                                                  produced the wine in the free zone and the
(b) the name and address of the consignee ;                       locality within the latter, where the wine was
                                                                  produced ;
(c) the word 'wine' or, if appropriate, the type of
     product, this information being given using the         (d) where the wine has been put in containers with a
     definition in the Community provisions which                 nominal volume of 60 litres or less and provided
     most accurately describes the product concerned ;            that the bottler is not one of the persons referred
                                                                  to in (c) : the name or business name of the bottler
(d) the volume of the product ;                                   and the locality within the free zone where
                                                                  bottling took place.
(e) in the case of :
                                                             2. The description of the wines may be supple­
     — grape must and grape juice, whether or not            mented by the following information :
         concentrated : the density,
                                                             (a) a brand name provided that it does not show
     — wine and grape must in fermentation : the                  words, parts of words, signs or designs which :
         actual and total alcoholic strength ;
                                                                  — are likely to create a false impression of a
(f) the name of the third country or countries                        person, particularly the bottler, who has been
     concerned .                                                      involved in the commercial distribution of the
                                                                      product described,
When an official document drawn up by the authori­                — contain false or misleading information, parti­
ties of a third country has been submitted the original               cularly in respect of indications of geogra­
shall be deposited with the authorities referred to in                phical origin, vine variety, vintage year or
paragraph 1 .                                                         superior quality,
 ---pagebreak--- No L 357/ 18                       Official Journal of the European Communities                             29. 12. 76
    — include the name of a table wine or of a                down in Article 7 of Regulation No 24 (') to the
        quality wine psr or may lead to confusion with        extent required by the laws of the third countries to
        the description of a table wine, a quality wine      which the wine will be dispatched.
        psr or an imported wine,
        or                                                   The description of wines resulting from one of the
    — contain information concerning the geogra­              operations referred to in Article 1 ( 1 ) shall not bear
        phical origin, vine variety, vintage year or any      any indication, sign, illustration or brand name which
        indication of superior quality ;                      might lead to confusion with a Community product.
(b) the actual and/or total alcoholic strength ;
                                                                                       Article S
(c) a recommendation to the consumer as to the use
    of the wine.
                                                              This Regulation shall not prejudice the application of
                                                              Directive 69/75/EEC.
3. Only the information specified in paragraphs 1
and 2 shall be permitted for the description of wines
resulting from one of the operations referred to in                                    Article 6
Article 1 (1 ).
Supplementary information may, however, be                    This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 March
provided for in accordance with the procedure laid            1977.
               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
                States.
                Done at Brussels, 21 December 1976.
                                                                           For the Council
                                                                            The President
                                                                     A. P. L. M. M. van der STEE
                                                              (') OJ No 30, 20 . 4. 1962, p. 989/62.