CELEX: 31974D0134
Language: en
Date: 1974-02-18 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 18 February 1974 on the application to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of Article 37 of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community

No L 74/20                       Official Journal of the European Communities                                 19 . 3 . 74
                                           COMMISSION DECISION
                                                 of 18 February 1974
               on the application to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
               Ireland of Article 37 of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel
                                                     Community
                                                    (74/ 134/ECSC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                 Whereas in order to meet the situation a licensing
COMMUNITIES,                                                   system to limit deliveries to other Member States as
                                                               well as to third countries should be established ;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European          whereas the regime to be applied with regard to other
Coal and Steel Community and in particular                     Member States must under no circumstances be more
Article 37 ;                                                   restrictive than that relating to third countries ;
                                                               Whereas the measures taken under Article 37 are justi­
Having regard to the application of 8 February 1974,           fied only while the special and exceptional situation
by which the United Kingdom notified the Commis­               referred to above remains in existance ; whereas, more­
sion of the serious and exceptional difficulties existing      over, to assume the responsibility falling on it under
in the United Kingdom coal and steel sectors and               Article 37 of the Treaty and to ensure the least distur­
which , in the opinion of that Government, are such as         bance to the operation of the common market, the
to present an actual risk of engendering fundamental           Commission must be able to control the application
and continuing disturbances in the United Kingdom              of this Decision and to revoke or alter the measures
economy ;
                                                               taken if they exceed that which is necessary to deal
                                                               with the situation referred to in Article 37 or if they
Having consulted the Council of the European                   are contrary to essential interests of the Community
Communities ;                                                  or to certain parts of it particularly affected ;
Whereas the events that have taken place in the                Whereas, finally, the measures taken under Article 37
United Kingdom since the last months of 1973, have              must be of an absolutely exceptional kind and of
brought about a sharp fall in the production of coal            limited duration and whereas, consequently, this Deci­
and coke such as to endanger normal supplies to the             sion must cease to remain in operation on 15 July
United Kingdom economy and to engender funda­                   1974 at the latest,
mental and continuing disturbances ; whereas the
world energy situation does not permit alternative
sources of supply to be found at short notice for the
                                                                HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
 United Kingdom economy ; whereas these events
 involved    a  considerable reduction  in   the   United
 Kingdom industrial steel production ;
                                                                                        Article 1
Whereas ip such conditions the economic situation in             1.   The Commission recognises that the serious and
 the United Kingdom would be aggravated by deliv­               exceptional difficulties facing the United Kingdom in
 eries of coal and steel products to other Member               the coal and steel sectors are such as to induce funda­
 States in accordance with the system of free circula­          mental and continuing disturbances in the United
 tion of goods such as is provided for by the ECSC              Kingdom economy if the Commission does not inter­
 Treaty and the Act annexed to the Treaty of Acces­             vene under Article 37 of the Treaty.
 sion ;
                                                                 2.   In order to bring this situation to an end, the
 Whereas in order to diminish the consequences of the            Commission considers it necessary to apply the
 situation it is necessary to envisage appropriate               measures defined in the following Articles .
 measures to cover the serious and exceptional diffi­
 culties which the United Kingdom coal and steel
 production is currently experiencing ; whereas, taking                                  Arl idc 2
 into account the normal means of action provided for
 in the Treaty, the situation is such as to engender             The United Kingdom shall establish , in respect of
 fundamental and continuing disturbances in the                  those products referred to in Article 81 of the Treaty,
 United Kingdom economy if the Commission does                   with the exception of those under heading No 73.03
 not intervene by means of measures taken under                  of the ECSC unified tariff , a licence system in order
 Article 37 of the Treaty ;                                      to :
 ---pagebreak--- 19 . 3 . 74                       Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 74/21
— limit exports of such products to third countries ;       — the situation referred to in Article 1 has altered or
— control and, in so far as is necessary, limit deliv­          ceased to exist ;
     eries of such products to other Member States —        — the measures taken in application of the provi­
     such system may however under no circumstances             sions of this Decision exceed what is necessary to
     be more restrictive as far as each product is              deal with the situation referred to in Article 1 ;
     concerned than that applied to exports to third        — application of this Decision is contrary to essential
     countries .
                                                                interests of the Community or to certain parts of it
                                                                particularily affected.
                        Article 3
1 . The United Kingdom shall notify the Commis­              2.     The Commission shall review the whole position
                                                            three months after this Decision has entered into
sion immediately of those measures taken in applica­        force .
tion of Article 2 and shall inform the Commission
regularly concerning the application of such measures.
                                                                                     Article 6
2. The United Kingdom shall inform the Commis­
sion of the development of the situation referred to in
Article 1 and particularly of the position with regard      Without prejudice to the application of Article 5, this
to stocks, production and imports.                           Decision shall remain in operation until 15 July 1974.
                        Article 4                                                    Article 7
1 . The Commission shall ensure that the provisions         This Decision is addressed to the Member States .
of this Decision are applied, in particular with regard
to the drawing-up and use of licences.
2. The Commission shall, as appropriate, adopt the
provisions necessary for the application of this Deci­       Done at Brussels, 18 February 1974.
sion .
                                                                                        For the Commission
                        Article 5
                                                                                           The President
1.     The Commission may alter or revoke this Deci­
sion if it determines that                                                            Francois-Xavier ORTOLI