CELEX: 51979PC0111
Language: en
Date: 1979-03-14
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ON THE MEASURES TO BE TAKEN IN THE EVENT OF IRREGULARITIES AFFECTING THE OWN RESOURCES REFERRED TO IN THE DECISION OF 21 APRIL 1970 AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE COMMISSION IN THIS FIELD

No C 88/4                              Official Journal of the European Communities                               4. 4. 79
on Community territory which are consistent with                                         Article 3
priority Community objectives in the infrastructure
and energy sectors.                                             The Commission shall decide whether or not projects
                                                                are eligible in accordance with the following
                                                                guidelines:
The infrastructure investments shall involve mainly             — the investment shall be consistent with the
transports,        telecommunications,          agricultural         Community and national rules applicable in the
improvements, hydraulic constructions and environ-                   relevant sector,
mental protection.                                              — the investment shall make an effective contri-
                                                                     bution to increasing gross fixed asset formation in
                                                                     the Member State concerned,
The energy investments shall contribute to greater              — the investment shall contribute to solving the
 independence and to security and diversification of                 Community's main structural problems, and in
the Community's energy supply; they shall contribute                 particular to reducing regional imbalance in the
 to the development, exploitation, use, transport and                Community and to improving the employment
 stocking of energy resources and to energy-saving.                  situation.
              Proposal for a Council Regulation on the measures to be taken in the event of irregu-
              larities affecting the own resources referred to in the Decision of 21 April 1970 and the
                          organization of an information system for the Commission in this field
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 19 March 1979)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                     larities in this field, since the Commission has the
COMMUNITIES,                                                    obligation to see that own resources are established in
                                                                the correct manner;
Having regard to Decision 70/243/ECSC, EEC,
Euratom of 21 April 1970 on the replacement of                  Whereas, in order to know the nature of irregular
financial contributions from Member States by the               practices and their financial effects, it is necessary to
Communities' own resources ('), hereinafter referred            make provision for supplying the Commission with a
to as the 'Decision of 21 April 1970', and in                   quarterly statement of irregularities; whereas this
particular Article 6 (2) thereof,                               statement should be supplemented by information on
                                                                the progress of legal or administrative procedures to
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              establish the own resources evaded;
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-               Whereas, because of the special nature of revenue
liament,                                                        from VAT, it is also necessary to set up an infor-
                                                                mation system, classified by economic activities
                                                                pertaining to this revenue, based on the transmission
Having regard to the opinion of the Court of
                                                                by the Member States of provisional half-yearly
Auditors,
                                                                reports and a final'annual report, since the nature of
                                                                the irregular practices and their financial effects must
Whereas the full implementation of the own resources            be known in the case of revenue from VAT also;
arrangements should be accompanied by improved
methods for informing the Commission of irregu-
                                                                Whereas the overall findings should regularly be
                                                                brought to the notice of the Advisory Committee on
                                                                Own Resources under a procedure which takes
(*) OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 19.                             account of their confidentiality,
 ---pagebreak--- 4. 4. 79                            Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 88/5
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                                             TITLE II:
                                                                Irregularities affecting own resources from customs
                           TITLE I:                             duties and agricultural levies within the meaning of
                                                                      Article 2 (a) of the Decision of 21 April 1970
                      General provisions
                           Article 1                                                      Article 5
The provisions of this Regulation concern the revenue           During the month following the end of each quarter,
 referred to in Article 2 (a) and (b) of the Decision of        Member States shall supply the Commission with a
 21 April 1970 and the revenue from value added tax             statement on customs duties and agricultural levies
 (VAT) referred to in Article 4 (1) of that Decision,           and shall list irregularities which have been the
 both hereinafter called 'own resources'.                       subject of an initial official record of an
                                                                administrative or legal nature.
                            Article 2
                                                                To this end, they shall provide all the available parti-
 The Member States shall inform the Commission of               culars of:
 measures which they take in accordance with national
 and Community laws, regulations and administrative             — the provisions which have been infringed,
 provisions to:
                                                                — the type of own resources concerned and the
 — prevent, and take proceedings against, irregu-                    estimated amount,
      larities relating to own resources,
                                                                — the operation in question,
 — establish, within the meaning of Regulation (EEC)
      No 2891/77 ( ! ), sums evaded as a result of irregu-      — the period during which or the time at which the
      larities relating to own resources.                            irregularity was committed,
                                                                — the practices used to commit the irregularity,
                                                                — how the irregularity was detected,
                           Article 3
                                                                — the national departments            or  bodies   which
1.      Member States shall notify the Commission, at                established the irregularity.
its request, of:
                                                                 Where some of these facts, particularly those
— the national laws, regulations and administrative              concerning the practices used to commit the irregu-
     provisions under which the measures referred to             larity and how it was detected, are not available at
     in Article 2 have been taken,                               the time of the original notification, Member States
                                                                 shall supply them, as far as they are able, in sub-
— a list of the departments and bodies responsible
                                                                 sequent quarterly reports to the Commission.
     for applying these measures and the main
     provisions relating to the role and functioning of
     these departments and bodies and to the pro-
     cedures which they are responsible for applying.
                                                                                          Article 6
2.     Amendments         concerning     the    information
provided under paragraph 1 shall be notified to the
                                                                 1.    During the month following the end of each
Commission without delay.
                                                                quarter, Member States shall inform the Commission
                                                                of the legal or administrative procedures which have
                                                                been initiated following discovery of an irregularity
                           Article 4                             and shall provide it with all relevant information
                                                                 thereon.
 The competent national and Community authorities
 shall take all the requisite security measures to ensure
 that the information exchanged between them
 remains confidential.                                           2.     The Commission shall be informed, at its
                                                                 request, of the progress of the procedures referred to
                                                                 in paragraph 1 and the amount established or
 (') OJ No L 336, 27. 12. 1977, p. 1.                            expected to be established.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 88/6                              Official Journal of the European Communities                              4. 4. 79
 3.    Where a legal or administrative decision is taken        — agriculture and fisheries,
 as a result of the procedures referred to in paragraph
 1, Member States shall inform the Commission of this           -r— mining industry,
 decision.                                                      — manufacturing industry,
                                                                — construction industry,
                                                                — electricity, gas and water distribution,
                          TITLE III:
                                                                — retail trade,
    Irregularities affecting own resources from VAT
                                                                — wholesale trade,
                                                                — transport,
                           Article 7
                                                                — services.
 1.    Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 9,
Member States shall present a provisional half-yearly           The Commission may, where necessary, request a
report on irregularities involving own resources from           more detailed breakdown within the abovementioned
VAT.                                                            subdivisions.
2.     This report, presented in the course of the
month following the end of each six-monthly period,
shall record for each economic activity, if possible                                    TITLE IV
broken down by size of turnover, cases of irregularity
according to the following pattern:
                                                                              Common and final provisions
— the number of cases recorded,
                                                                                        Article 9
— a breakdown by category of infringement relating
     to these cases (omission of declaration, false
     declaration, declaration without payment of the            In cases where the irregularity concerns a sum less
     tax due, etc.),                                           than 1 000 EUA and, as regards revenue from VAT,
                                                               if the irregularity concerns a basis of assessment less
— a breakdown according to the nature of the pro-              than 100 000 EUA, Member States shall furnish the
     cedures set in motion (administrative procedure,          information provided for in this Regulation only at
     legal procedure, compulsory collection, etc.),            the express request of the Commission.
— the year in which the infringements recorded took
     place,
                                                                                        Article 10
— an overall       assessment     of the   own    resources
     evaded.
                                                               Each Member State shall without delay inform the
                                                               other Member States concerned and the Commission
3.     Four months after presentation of the second            of irregularities established or presumed where there
provisional half-yearly report, Member States shall            is reason to fear that they will have repercussions
send the Commission a final annual report informing            outside its own territory and of irregularities
it of all the VAT own resources evaded which have              revealing the use of a new irregular practice.
been or will be established and the number of irregu-
larities revealed in a financial year, following the
same breakdown as the provisional report.
                                                                                       Article 11
4.     Member       States     shall  also    inform    the
Commission of the cases of irregularity concerning              1.   The Commission shall maintain appropriate
matters of principle which could have serious                  contacts with the Member States concerned for the
financial consequences.                                        purpose of supplementing the information provided
                                                               about the irregularities, the resulting procedures and,
                                                               in particular, the facts and amounts established.
                           Article 8                           2.    In addition, it shall keep the Advisory
                                                               Committee on Own Resources informed, as far as
The presentation by economic activity referred to in           necessary, about these contacts by holding special
Article 7 (2) shall include at least the following             meetings in order to safeguard the confidentiality of
subdivisions:                                                  the information in question.
 ---pagebreak--- 4. 4. 79                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                N o C 88/7
3.     Furthermore, the Advisory Committee on Own                     conducting any additional checks which prove
Resources shall be periodically informed by the                       necessary within the meaning of Article 18 (2) of
Commission of the order of magnitude of the own                       Regulation (EEC) N o 2891/77, following exami-
resources affected by the irregularities detected, and                nation of the documents and the information
the various categories of irregularity.                               received as a result,              I
4.     Should the application of certain provisions in                adopting any regulatory provision^ which may
force reveal a deficiency detrimental to the financial                prove necessary to prevent or check ^sases of irre-
interests of the Community, Member States shall                       gularity revealed.                      """---.._---•
immediately alert the Commission, which shall take
the measures necessary to remedy the deficiency.
                                                                                          Article 13
                         Article 12                              The Commission shall each year, on the basis of the
                                                                 information and final reports provided by the
 The information referred to in Articles 5 and 6 and             Member States, compile a summary document, which
 the reports referred to in Article 7 shall enable the           shall be submitted to the Advisory Committee on
 Commission to take the necessary steps as part of its           Own Resources, and shall report to the Council and
 activities to prevent and monitor irregularities in the         European Parliament on the application of this Regu-
 own resources sector, such as:                                   lation.
 — conducting on-the-spot examination of the
      documents held by administrations concerning the           This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
      cases revealed,                                             directly applicable in all Member States.
               Proposal for a Council Regulation allocating catch quotas between Member States for
                                             vessels fishing in Faroese waters
                             (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 19 March 1979)
  THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                      Whereas the Community on the one hand and the
  COMMUNITIES;                                                     Government of Denmark and the Home Government
                                                                   of the Faroe Islands on the other hand have signed a
                                                                   Framework Agreement on fisheries;
  Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
  European Economic Community and in particular
  Article 43 thereof,                                              Whereas the Community and the Faroe Islands have
                                                                   held consultations concerning their mutual fishing
                                                                   allocations for 1979;
  Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                   Whereas during the consultations the delegations
                                                                   agreed to recommend to their authorities that they fix
  Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-                certain catch quotas for 1979 for vessels of the other
  liament,                                                         party;
 Whereas on 3 November 1976 the Council adopted a                  Whereas it is the responsibility of the Community to
  set of resolutions concerning certain external and               allocate the catch quotas in the Faroese fishery zone
  internal aspects of the common fisheries policy;                 among its own fishermen;