CELEX: 51990PC0151
Language: en
Date: 1990-04-25
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) ON REINFORCING THE MONITORING OF CERTAIN EXPENDITURE CHARGEABLE TO THE GUARANTEE SECTION OF THE EUROPEAN AGRICULTURAL GUIDANCE AND GUARANTEE FUND

No C 126/6                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                22. 5. 90
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on reinforcing the monitoring of certain expenditure
              chargeable to the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee
                                                            Fund
                                                    COM(90) 151 final
                                      (Submitted by the Commission on 3 May 1990)
                                                       (90/C 126/08)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         Whereas the Member States must be encouraged to take
                                                                 measures to step up controls in these areas;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 43                 Whereas the resulting financial effort may, for some
thereof,                                                         Member States, entail excessive additional budget expen-
                                                                 diture, and provision should be made for a Community
                                                                 financial contribution over a certain period;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                 Whereas account must be taken of the diversity of the
Having regard       to   the  opinion   of  the   European       administrative structures existing in the Member States,
Parliament,                                                      and the latter should therefore be authorized to take
                                                                 reinforcement measures in accordance with differing
                                                                 procedures,
Whereas, under Article 8 of Council Regulation (EEC)
No 729/70 of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the
common agricultural policy ('), as last amended by               HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Regulation (EEC) No 2048/88 (2), Member States are to
take the measures necessary to satisfy themselves that the
transactions financed by the European Agricultural                                           Article 1
Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) are actually
carried out and are executed correctly, to prevent and           1.     Where a Member State, in accordance with
deal with irregularities and to recover sums lost as a           paragraph 2, reinforces the monitoring and detection of
result of irregularities or negligence;                          fraud and irregularities in connection with exports of
                                                                 agricultural products and products exported as goods not
                                                                 falling under Annex II to the Treaty, the Community
                                                                 shall, during a period of five years beginning on the first
Whereas, in spite of the measures taken by the Member
                                                                 day of the month following the entry into force of this
States, unjustified expenditure for the Community is
                                                                 Regulation, bear:
incurred in the form of refunds on exports to third
countries and intervention measures intended to stabilize
certain markets;                                                 — 20 % of the remuneration of the agents referred to in
                                                                      paragraph 2 below occupying supplementary posts
                                                                      created after 31 December 1989, which is to be fixed
Whereas, therefore, the monitoring and detection of                   on a flat-rate basis throughout the Community,
fraud and irregularities in connection with exports of
agricultural products, products exported as goods not
                                                                 — 33 % of the cost of training and briefing those
falling under Annex II to the Treaty and measures
                                                                      agents,
applicable to certain sectors or certain products must be
reinforced;
                                                                 — 33 % of the cost of equipping those agents,
                                                                 — 33 % of the costs arising from the monitoring work
O OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13.                                     entrusted to the approved surveillance firms and
(2) OJ No L 185, 15. 7. 1988, p. 1.                                   laboratories referred to in paragraph 2,
 ---pagebreak---   22. 5. 90                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No C 126/7
  up to a total amount of ECU 10 million per year.                — 20 % of the remuneration of the agents employed by
                                                                      that service or agency and occupying supplementary
                                                                      posts created after 31 December 1989, which is to be
  This amount shall, each year, be allocated by the                   fixed on a flat-rate basis throughout the Community,
  Commission among the Member States in proportion to
  their expenditure on export refunds for agricultural            — 33 % of the training and briefing costs,
  products and for agricultural products exported as goods
  not falling under Annex II to the Treaty, as recognized
  when the most recent decision relating to the clearance         — 33 % of the equipment costs,
  of accounts provided for in Article 5 of Regulation
  (EEC) No 729/70 was taken.
                                                                  up to a total amount of ECU 10 million per year.
  2. The reinforcement measures referred to in                    This amount shall, each year, be allocated by the
  paragraph 1 may consist in entrusting agents with the           Commission among the Member States which apply
  specific task of:                                               therefore, in proportion to their expenditure on the
                                                                  measures referred to in paragraph 2, as recognized when
                                                                  the most recent decision relating to the clearance of
                                                                  accounts provided for in Article 5 of Regulation (EEC)
 — checking the quantity and quality of the products              No 729/70 was taken.
      intended for export, with a view to the granting of
     refunds,
                                                                  2. The monitoring referred to in paragraph 1 may
                                                                  relate to:
 — detecting and dealing with fraud and irregularities in
     connection with the products referred to in
     paragraph 1;                                                 (a) aid per hectare;
                                                           l
                                                                  (b) aid for the set-aside of arable land;
 entrusting approved firms specializing in surveillance
 work, or approved laboratories, with the task of:                (c) measures provided for in the wine sector;
 — checking the quantity and quality of the products              (d) measures provided for in the fruit and vegetables
     intended for export, with a view to the granting of              sector;
     refunds,
                                                                 (e) storage aid for dried grapes;
 — verifying whether the products in question have been
     imported into the third country of destination.             (f) premiums provided for in the beef and veal and
                                                                      sheepmeat and goatmeat sectors;
 3. The approved surveillance firms and laboratories             (g) premiums for tobacco;
 referred to in the preceding paragraph must provide all
guarantees as to their independence. In particular, they         (h) aid for oilseeds.
 may not, in supervised transactions or in similar export
transactions, act in the capacity of exporter, customs
agent, carrier, agent in the Community or in a third             3. The agencies referred to in paragraph 1 shall have
country, consignee, storer or in any other capacity that         full administrative and financial latitude. They shall
could give rise to a conflict of interests.                      recruit their staff, organize their activities, carry out their
                                                                 tasks and effect the relevant expenditure in full inde-
                                                                 pendence from the existing administrative structures.
                          Article 2
                                                                Their status shall ensure their independence vis-d-vis the
 1. Where a Member State has of one or more services
                                                                 recipients, including indirect recipients, under the
or agencies or sets up the same, entrusted exclusively
                                                                 measure monitored or their representatives and vis-d-vis
with the monitoring of one or more of the measures
                                                                those working in the trade concerned.
referred to in paragraph 2 and with the detection and
prosecution of fraud and irregularities connected with
those measures, the Community shall, during a period of         They shall be vested by the Member State with all
five years, beginning on the first day of the month             powers necessary to carry out the tasks entrusted to
following the entry into force of this Regulation, bear:        them in accordance with paragraph 1.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 126/8                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                 22. 5. 90
                          Article 3                                                          Article 6
The Community financial contribution under this Regu-            The equipment costs shall include in particular the
lation may not be combined with that provided for, in            purchase or hire of data-processing, office and transport
respect of the products referred to in Articles 1 and 2, by      equipment, with the exclusion, however, of basic office
other Regulations, and in particular:                            equipment.
— Council Regulation (EEC) No 283/72 of 7 February                                           Article 7
     1972 concerning irregularities and the recovery of
    sums wrongly paid in connection with the financing           The annual amount representing the expenditure borne
    of the common agricultural policy (*),                       by the Community shall be fixed by the Commission on
                                                                 the basis of information supplied by the Member States.
— Council Regulation (EEC) No 765/85 of 12 March
                                                                 At the request of the Member States, the Commission
     1985 on increasing the staff of the departments              may make advance payments to be deducted from the
    responsible for quality control of agricultural              definitive amount of its contribution.
    products in Greece (2),
— Council Regulation (EEC) No 2048/89 of 19 June                                             Article 8
     1989 laying down general rules on controls in the
                                                                  Detailed rules for the application of this Regulation, and
    wine sectors ( J ),
                                                                  in particular the flat-rate amounts referred to in Articles
— Council Regulation (EEC) No 4045/89 of 21                       1 (1) and 2 (1), the rules on approved firms and labora-
    December 1989 relating to control by Member States           tories as referred to in Article 1 (2) and those applicable
    of operations being part of the system of financing by        to the agencies referred to in Article 2, shall be adopted
    the EAGGF-Guarantee sector and repealing Council              in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 13
    Directive N o 77/435 (EEC) (4).                               of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70.
                          Article 4                                                          Article 9
For the purposes of this Regulation, 'remuneration'              The amounts expressed in ecus shall be converted into
means the salaries, less the taxes and fiscal charges, of         national currencies by applying the exchange rates in
the agents concerned, and the travel costs that are               force on the first working day of the relevant year, as
necessary for the carrying out of their duties. The               published in the 'C series of the Official Journal of the
amount of the remuneration shall be determined on a               European Communities.
flat-rate and uniform basis throughout the Community
by reference to the salaries applied by Member States for                                   Article 10
similar functions.
                                                                  Each year before 30 September, the Commission shall
                                                                  assess, on the basis of a report forwarded by the Member
                          Article 5                               States concerned before 30 June of the year following
The training costs referred to in Article 1 (1) and in            the year of the expenditure, the results obtained by the
Article 2 (1) may include the costs of running training           measures cofinanced by the Community.
courses of at least three days' duration and the costs of
disclosing specialized information.                                                         Article 11
                                                                  This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its
                                                                  publication in the Official Journal of the European
0)  OJ  No L 36, 10. 2. 1972, p. 1.                                Communities.
O   OJ  No L 86, 27. 3. 1985, p. 5.
(») OJ  No L 202, 14. 7. 1989, p. 32.                             This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
O   OJ  No L 388, 30. 12. 1989, p. 18.                            directly applicable in all Member States.