CELEX: 51987PC0694
Language: en
Date: 1988-01-13
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) LAYING DOWN GENERAL RULES ON CONTROLS IN THE WINE SECTOR

No C 24/8                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                   29.1.88
                                                                    II
                                                            (Preparatory Acts)
                                                      COMMISSION
                 Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) laying down general rules on controls in the wine
                                                                  sector
                                                           COM(87) 694 final
                                  (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 29 December 1987)
                                                              (88/C 24/10)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                                 Whereas each Member State must ensure that the work
                                                                         of control agencies is more effective and whereas, for
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                    this purpose, a coordination structure must be set up in
Economic Community,                                                      all the Member States in which wine inspection work is
                                                                         carried out by more than one competent authority;
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 822/87
of 16 March 1987 on the common organization of the
market in wine ('), as last amended by Regulation (EEC)                  Whereas all the authorities responsible for control in the
No 3146/87 (2), and in particular Article 79 (2) thereof,                wine sector must be aware of the measures, decisions or
                                                                         interpretations relating to the application of the wine
                                                                         rules in a Member State if there is to be proper har-
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                       monization of legislation at Community level; whereas a
                                                                         permanent flow of relevant information on this subject
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-                        must be introduced between the various national or
liament,                                                                 Community authorities;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                                        Whereas to help make the application of the rules
                                                                         uniform throughout the Community, the Member States
Whereas, for the purposes of uniform application of the                  should, in particular, take the necessary action to ensure
wine provisions, there is a need for rules designed to                   that the staffs of the authorities responsible for controls
improve the control procedures already in force at                       have sufficient technical competence comparable with
Community and national level and to strengthen                           that of corresponding staffs in the other Member States,
cooperation between the authorities responsible for the                  and that they have the minimum essential investigative
controls in the wine sector provided for until now in                    powers to ensure compliance with the rules;
Council Regulation (EEC) No 359/79 ( J );
                                                                         Whereas the development of trade in wine between the
Whereas general rules are also required for the intro-
                                                                         various Member States, in particular the steady
duction and operation of a Community structure
                                                                         expansion in the number of multinational companies in
comprising a body of officials specialized in controls in
                                                                         this sector, and the scope provided by the management
the wine sector, responsible, at Community level, for
                                                                         rules to have carried out or to transfer operations,
ensuring uniform application of Community rules;
                                                                         whether or not aided, to places different from those in
                                                                         which the product has been grown reflect the
Whereas the mesures adopted by the Member States to                      interdependence of the wine markets; whereas this
ensure compliance with the wine rules have revealed the                  situation necessitates greater harmonization of control
limits to their effectiveness, notably on the occasions of               methods and closer cooperation between the various
fraud which seriously disrupted the wine sector both in                  control agencies;
1985 and in 1986; whereas the Member States should
therefore be invited to adopt provisions that can ensure
proper application of the rules, in particular in sensitive              Whereas the immense damage which fraud can cause to
fields;                                                                  consumers and producers, whether as regards health or
                                                                         business operations, therefore makes it imperative to
                                                                         improve the cohesion of the authorities responsible for
(') O J N o L 8 4 , 27. 3. 1987, p. 1.                                   controls, in particular by the creation of a body of
(2) OJ No L 300, 23. 10. 1987, p. 4.                                     Community officials specially assigned to this type of
O O J N o L 5 4 , 5. 3. 1979, p. 136.                                    work;
 ---pagebreak--- 29.1.88                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                 NoC24/9
Whereas the work of the Community officials                       Whereas arrangements should be made to ensure that
responsible for controls in the wine sector is motivated          information on experience gained is shared so that gains
by the absolute need to ensure uniform application of the         in this respect in each Member State are enjoyed by all,
rules and effective assistance to the corresponding               without delay; whereas the Commission's competent
national staffs; whereas, for this purpose, their control         authority should therefore be systematically informed of
work, where necessary carried out on-the-spot, could be           requests for assistance and action taken thereon;
dovetailed into programmes adopted jointly with the
Member States;                                                    Whereas, in view of the complex nature of some cases
                                                                  and the need for urgent action, it is essential that where
Whereas, in cases of serious risk of fraud, or of fraud           a competent authority has submitted a request for
involving more than one Member State or a single                  assistance it should, in agreement with the requested
Member State, all the competent authorities concerned             authority, be able to involve its own staff, where appro-
will automatically implement the spontaneous assistance           priate on-the-spot, in the execution of the investigations;
procedure provided for in this Regulation;
                                                                  Whereas, in view of the nature of the information
Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 1468/81 ('), as               exchanged, it should be covered by the requirements of
amended by Regulation (EEC) No 945/87 (2),                        commercial or professional secrecy;
concerning mutual assistance between the administrative
authorities of the Member States and cooperation                  Whereas, in view of the importance of ensuring that the
between the latter and the Commission, provides                   organization of the controls referred to in this Regu-
explicitly that in the wine sector the specific rules laid        lation is effective, there should be regular discussions
down regarding cooperation in Regulation (EEC) No                 between the representatives of the various competent
359/79 are to apply;                                              authorities; whereas such discussions should cover
                                                                  topical points relating to actual or presumed
Whereas account should be taken of the experience                 infringements and, more generally, the application of this
gained in the field of cooperation between control auth-          Regulation, in order to contribute to uniform
orities, and the scope of such cooperation should be              implementation of - its provisions thoughout the
extended to cover, in particular, the introduction at             Community,
Community level of a structure which will henceforth be
competent in this field; whereas Regulation (EEC) No
359/79 should therefore be repealed in order to revise            HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
the rules governing relations between authorities;
                                                                                            Article 1
Whereas, as a consequence, new cooperation procedures
                                                                   1.    This Regulation lays down rules             for    the
should be established in the wine sector which, while
                                                                  improvement of controls in the wine sector.
respecting the sector's special nature, which is linked in
particular to the existence of a Community control                It sets up a Community structure enabling specific
structure the powers of which should be laid down, must           officials of the Commission to intervene in this sector
fall within the framework defined in Regulation (EEC)             and lays down rules governing the cooperation of such
No 1468/81;                                                       officials with national supervisory authorities.
Whereas provisions should be laid down under which the            It also lays down measures regarding the relations
Member States' and the Commission's competent auth-               between those authorities with each other and with the
orities must provide mutual assistance with a view to             Commission with a view to preventing and detecting any
ensuring proper application of the wine rules, in                 infringement of the Community provisions in question
particular through preventive action and the detection of         and of national provisions laid down pursuant thereto.
infringements or behaviour suspected of infringing the
rules; whereas those provisions are not an obstacle to the        2.     This Regulation shall not affect the application in
application of specific rules relating to customs matters,        the Member States of rules relating to:
taxation, criminal law or Community expenditure;
                                                                  — procedure and mutual assistance at judicial level in
Whereas where the Commission or its authorized                         criminal matters;
officials encounter, in carrying out their work, repeated
                                                                  — mutual assistance in respect of customs or taxation
and unjustified difficulties, the Commission may call
                                                                       matters;
upon the Member State concerned not only for an
explanation but also for the facilities enabling the work         — Community verification of expenditure.
to be completed, whereas the Member State concerned
 must then ensure the execution of its obligations deriving
                                                                                            Article 2
from this Regulation, by facilitating the execution of the
 Commission's task;                                                For the purposes of this Regulation:
                                                                   (a) 'rules in the wine sector' shall mean           all the
 (') O J N o L 144,2.6. 1981, p. 1.                                     Community wine-sector provisions and           national
 O O J N o L 9 0 , 2. 4. 1987, p. 3.                                    provisions laid down for their application;
 ---pagebreak--- No C 24/10                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                    29.1.88
(b) 'competent authority' shall mean the competent                3.     The controls provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2
     authority or department designated by the Member             shall be carried out either systematically or by sampling.
     State or the Commission to ensure compliance with            In the case of sampling, Member States shall ensure by
     the rules in the wine sector in each Member State            their number and frequency that controls are represen-
     and at Community level respectively;                         tative of the whole of their territory and in proportion to
                                                                  the scale of the wine-sector products released for free
(c) 'applicant authority' shall mean the competent                circulation.
     authority or department of a Member State or of the
     Commission which takes the initiative of applying for
                                                                  Each Member State shall notify the Commission of the
     assistance;
                                                                  provisions it has adopted in this field.
(d) 'requested authority' shall mean the competent
     authority of a Member State to which an application
                                                                                              Article 4
     for assistance is made.
                                                                  1.     Where a Member State designates several auth-
                                                                  orities to carry out controls, it shall ensure the coordi-
                           TITLE I                                nation of the work of those authorities.
Improvement of controls to be carried out by Member
                            States                                2.     Each Member State shall designate a single
                                                                  authority which will ensure cooperation with the
                           Article 3                              competent authorities of the other Member States and
                                                                  with the Commission.
1.     Member States shall take all necessary measures to
improve compliance with the rules in the wine sector in
                                                                  Member States shall ensure that the authorities
the following fields:
                                                                  competent for cooperation with the authorities of other
— harvest, production and stock declarations;                     Member States and of the Commission have qualified
                                                                  staff and sufficient facilities to ensure the success of such
— the holding, release for free circulation and keeping           cooperation.
    of registers of wine-sector products which are not put
    up with a view to sale;                                       They shall take all necessary action to ensure that, in
                                                                  emergencies, staff of the competent authorities have
— the destination and use of musts, whether or not                access to the communication networks of public
    concentrated, qualifying for aid.                             departments in such a way as to enable the secrecy of the
                                                                  information concerned to be protected.
2.     Producer Member States shall also take all
necessary measures to improve compliance with the rules
in the wine sector in the following fields:                       3.     The authority provided for in paragraph 2 shall
                                                                  forward regularly to the Commission national provisions
— grubbing, replanting and new planting;                          and administrative and judicial decisions of particular
                                                                  relevance to the uniform application of the rules in the
— the natural alcoholic strength by volume of grapes              wine sector in the Community. The Commission shall
    used for wine-making;                                         forward such information to the competent authorities of
                                                                  the other Member States.
— the use of wine obtained from grapes of vine varieties
    classified as other than wine grape varieties;
                                                                                              Article 5
— the enrichment of grapes, musts and wine and the
    holding and release for free circulation of sucrose,          The staff of the competent authorities of each Member
    concentrated grape must and rectified concentrated            State, the qualifications, training and professional
    grape must;                                                   experience of the officials, the resources made available
                                                                  to them and the organization of the authorities shall be
— the preparation of concentrated grape must and                  such as to ensure execution of the controls, notably in
    rectified concentrated grape must including the               the areas referred to in Article 3 (1) and (2). In
    production of the basic material employed;                    particular, the officials assigned to controls must possess
                                                                  the technical knowledge and suitable experience to carry
— the holding, release for free circulation, distillation         out such controls, particularly as regards technical
    and destruction of the by-products of wine-making;            controls, controls on vineyards, wineries, distilleries and
                                                                  vehicles and inspections of stock and financial accounts.
— the distillation and storage of products on which aid
    is paid;
                                                                                              Article 6
— the updating of the vineyard register;
                                                                  1.     Member States shall take all necessary action to
— the verification of the composition of products.                facilitate the work of the officials of the competent auth-
 ---pagebreak--- 29.1.88                                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 24/11
orities. They shall ensure in particular that officials of           3.    The Commission shall establish suitable links with
the competent authorities, where appropriate in                      the Member States to draw up a programme of
conjunction with officials of other departments auth-                inspections and controls. The Member States shall
orized for the purpose or with officials as referred to in           cooperate with the Commission to assist it in the
Article 7:                                                           accomplishment of its task. Where the Commission or its
                                                                     authorized officials encounter difficulties in the per-
— have access to the vineyards, wine-making instal-                  formance of their duties, the Member State concerned
     lations, warehouses, installations for processing wine-         shall make available to the Commission such resources as
     sector products and vehicles for those products;                will enable it to carry out its work properly and shall
                                                                     enable the Commission's authorized officials to supervise
— have access to the commercial premises of anyone                   the inspection or control work requested.
     holding, with a view to sale, releasing for free circu-
     lation or transporting, wine-sector products or
     products which may be intended for use in the wine              4.    After the execution of each programme of
     sector;                                                         inspections and controls, the Commission shall forward a
                                                                     report on the work of its officials to the competent
— may undertake a survey of wine-sector products and                 authority of the Member State concerned. The report
     materials which may be used for the preparation of              shall note any difficulties encountered or infringements
     such products;                                                  noted of the provisions in force.
— may take samples of products held with a view to
     sale, placed in free circulation or transported;                Once a year the Commission shall forward to the
                                                                     Council a report summarizing the reports provided for in
— may examine accounts or other documents for the                    the first subparagraph, together, where appropriate, with
     purpose of control and may take copies or extracts              suggestions for improving the system of controls.
     thereof.
2.     Natural or legal persons and groups of persons                                           Article 8
whose activities may be the subject of the controls                  The Community shall finance expenditure on:
referred to in Article 3(1) and (2) shall not obstruct such
controls and shall be required to facilitate them at all
times. Each Member State must attribute to the findings              — control work of the Commission's authorized
of the officials the widest possible evidential force                    officials, and in particular for their salaries and local
recognized within its domestic legal system.                             travel;
3.     The competent authority whose official has                    — specific measures of the specialized authority of the
collected a sample shall hold it and determine inter alia                Commission in support of its officials in the field.
the laboratory to which that sample is to be submitted
for examination.
                                                                     Appropriations for this purpose shall be set aside within
Where the sample is taken at the request of an official of           the framework of the budgetary procedure.
the Commission, three additional samples shall be made
available to him.
                                                                                               TITLE III
                            TITLE II                                           Assistance between competent authorities
                 Community control structure                                                  CHAPTER J
                            Article 7                                                 ASSISTANCE ON REQUEST
 1.    The Commission shall set up a body of specialized
officials for controls in the wine sector, who shall                                            Article 9
perform, in conjunction with the competent authorities                1.    The competent authority of a Member State which
of the Member States, on-the-spot checks in order to                 undertakes preventive action or research on its territory
ensure the uniform application of the rules in the wine              to ensure compliance with the rules in the wine sector
sector and in particular in the areas referred to in Article          regarding in particular:
 3 (1) and (2). The officials shall be duly authorized by
the Commission.
                                                                     — operations involving the introduction of wine-sector
                                                                          products from a Member State or a third country,
 2.     The Commission may decide to have its authorized
 officials take part in controls performed by the
 competent authorities of the Member States. They shall               — verification by cross-checking of documents or
 accompany the national officials, who shall remain                       qualities of products held with a view to sale or
 responsible at all times for control operations performed.               released into free circulation,
 ---pagebreak---   No C 24/12                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                   29.1.88
      may request information directly from the competent           The requested competent authority shall notify the
      authority of any Member State concerned or liable to          results of those investigations to the applicant authority.
     be involved directly or indirectly in the introduction        Also, the applicant competent authority of the Member
     of such products, and from the competent authority             State shall send the Commission copies of its request and
     of the Commission. The requested authority shall               of replies received.
     provide the applicant authority with all information
     as may enable the latter to carry out its duties.              2.    In agreement with the requested authority, the
     Whenever the product investigated comes from a                applicant competent authority may designate officials to
     third country, the competent authority of the                 provide assistance on-the-spot during the investigations
     Commission shall be notified.                                 referred to in paragraph 1.
 2.    In the framework of concerted action with
 competent national authorities for prevention or in case          3.     Travel costs incurred in the application of
 of specific research intended to ensure uniform                   paragraph 2 shall be borne by the Community budget.
 compliance with the rules in the wine sector, the
 competent authority of the Commission may request                                           Article 12
 directly one or more competent authorities to provide it,
 if necessary on-the-spot, with any information as may             In agreement with the requested authority, the applicant
 enable it to carry out its duties.                                authority may designate officials duly authorized to
                                                                   obtain, on premises where the administrative authorities
 3.    In order to obtain the information requested, the           coming under the Member State in which the requested
 requested competent authority or the administrative               authority has its seat, and according to procedures pre-
 authority to which the matter is referred by the latter           scribed by the latter in compliance with rules agreed
 shall act as if on its own account or at the request of an        between the two authorities concerned, all information
 authority of its own country.                                     relating to the application of the rules in the wine sector
                                                                   to which the officials of the requested authority have
                                                                   access.
                           Article 10
 1.    At the request of the applicant authority, the              Officials designated by the applicant authority shall be
 requested authority shall as far as possible perform or           authorized to take copies of such documentary infor-
 have performed special surveillance or controls on:               mation.
 (a) premises where products which are reasonably
     suspected of being used for carrying out operations                                   CHAPTER 2
     contravening the rules in the wine sector are stored
     or marketed;                                                                 SPONTANEOUS ASSISTANCE
(b) movements of products reported as possibly being                                        Article 13
     used for operations contravening the rules in the
     wine sector;                                                  1.    Where a competent authority of a Member State
                                                                  learns or has grounds to believe:
(c) vehicles which may reasonably be suspected of being
     used to carry out operations contravening the rules          — that a     product listed in Article 1 (2) of Regulation
     in the wine sector.                                               (EEC)    No 822/87 does not comply with the wine-
                                                                       sector  rules or has been the subject of fraudulent
2.     At the request of the applicant authority, the                  action  to obtain or release such a product for circu-
requested authority shall notify it in the most suitable               lation, and
manner of all information which it possesses or which it
obtains under the conditions referred to in Article 9 (3).        — the such failure to comply with the rules is of specific
The applicant authority of a Member State shall send the               interest to one or more Member States and is such as
Commission a copy of its request and of replies received.              to lead to administrative measures or legal action,
                           Article 11                             that authority shall notify the competent authority of the
                                                                  Commission and the competent authority or authorites
1.     At the request of the applicant authority, the             of the Member States concerned. Where the
requested authority shall conduct or have conducted               Commission's competent authority has reason to believe
suitable investigations of operations which contravene or         or has knowledge of the facts mentioned above, it shall
appear to the applicant authority to contravene, the rules        inform the competent authorities of the Member States
in the wine sector.                                               without delay.
To conduct those investigations, the requested authority
or the administrative authority to which the latter has           2.     The information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be
referred the matter shall act as if it were acting on its         accompanied by documents or other evidence and details
own account or at the request of an authority in its own          of any administrative measures or legal action and shall
country.                                                          relate in particular to:
 ---pagebreak--- 29.1.88                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                NoC24/13
— composition and organoleptic characteristics,                    than those who, in the Member States or Community
                                                                   institutions, need to know such information for the
— description and presentation,
                                                                   purposes of their work. Nor may it be used for purposes
— compliance with the rules laid down for preparation              other than those provided for by this Regulation, unless
    and marketing of the product in question.                      the authority which provided it has given explicit consent
                                                                   and provided that the provisions in force in the Member
3.     The competent authorities concerned under                   State where the authority which received it has its seat
paragraph 1 shall in so far as possible carry out or have          do not prevent such notification or utilization.
carried out suitable surveillance or controls.
                                                                   2.     The provisions of this Regulation shall not prevent
The competent authority of Commission may decide to                the use, in the course of court proceedings or pros-
take part in the various controls, if necessary on-the-            ecutions started subsequently for failure to comply with
spot, in conjunction with' the competent national auth-            agricultural or financial requirements of information
orities.                                                           obtained pursuant to this Regulation.
The competent authority concerned of one or more
Member States may designate national officials which it                                       Article 15
shall authorize to take part, if necessary on the spot, in
                                                                   Each quarter during the first year of application of this
the various controls carried out in the various Member
                                                                   Regulation and at least once a year thereafter, the
States concerned.
                                                                   Commission shall, in the context of the Management
In the case referred to in the preceding subparagraph,             Committee for Wine, organize meetings with represen-
the competent authority of the Commission shall, when              tatives of the competent authorities with a view to:
informed of such specific cooperation, provide for the
                                                                   — carrying out a general review of the way in which
coordination indispensable for the proper organization
                                                                        mutual assistance between competent authorities
of the action planned, in particular by making available
to the national authorities all the rapid access infor-                 operates;
mation facilities available to it.                                 — laying down practical rules for exchanges of infor-
                                                                        mation;
4.     The competent authorities concerned by the case
for which spontaneous assistance is initiated shall inform         — comparing or drawing guidance from experience
each other without delay of:                                            relating to the application of cooperation in the wine
                                                                        sector.
— the progress of investigations, particularly in the form
     of reports and other documents or information
                                                                                              Article 16
     media;
                                                                   The Commission shall adopt as necessary detailed rules
— any administrative or legal action taken subsequent to
                                                                   for the application of this Regulation in accordance with
    the operations referred to in this Article.
                                                                   the procedure laid down in Article 83 of Regulation
5.     Travel costs incurred in the application            of      (EEC) No 822/87.
paragraph 3 as regards national officials shall           be       Such detailed rules shall relate in particular to:
chargeable to the Community budget.
                                                                   — the frequency and nature of the checks provided for
                                                                        in Article 3 (3),
                          TITLE VI
                                                                   — the duties of authorized officials of the Commission
                     General provisions                                 as provided for in Article 7,
                                                                   — the taking of samples as provided for in Article 6 (3).
                          Article 14
 1.    Information forwarded pursuant to this Regulation,                                     Article 17
in whatever form, shall be confidential. Information shall
be covered by professional or commercial secrecy and               Regulation (EEC) No 359/79 is hereby repealed.
shall qualify for the protection conferred by the national
law of the Member State which received it on infor-                                           Article 18
mation of the same type and by the corresponding
                                                                   This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 April 1988.
provisions applying at Community level.
The information referred to in the first subparagraph              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
 may not in particular be transmitted to persons other              directly applicable in all Member States.