CELEX: 51993PC0483
Language: en
Date: 1993-10-13
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) amending Regulation (EEC) No 3813/93 on the unit of account and the conversion rates to be applied for the purposes of the common agricultural policy

No C 298 / 10                          Official Journal of the European Communities                                      4 . 11 . 93
                                                                 ii
                                                       (Preparatory Acts)
                                                  COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) amending Regulation (EEC) No 3813/93 on the unit
              of account and the conversion rates to be applied for the purposes of the common agricultural
                                                               policy
                                                         (93 / C 298 / 10)
                                                      CC>M(93) 483 final
                                      (Submitted by the Commission on 14 October 1993)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                             Whereas Article 13 of Regulation (EEC) No 3813 /92
                                                                      restricts the application of the ecu correcting factor to 3 1
                                                                      December 1994 and provides for a re-examination of the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                 agrimonetary arrangements before that date ; whereas the
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 42 and                 measures adjusting the limits and the rules for adjusting
43 thereof,                                                           the agricultural conversion rates should be reviewed
                                                                      within the abovementioned framework ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                      Whereas Article 7 of Regulation (EEC) No 3813 /92 lays
Having regard to the opinion of the European                          down that, at the request of the Member State
Parliament,                                                           concerned , certain amounts in ecus can be increased to
                                                                      avoid their reduction in national currency; whereas this
                                                                      is not economically justified in the case of amounts
Whereas the agrimonetary arrangements applicable from                 which have previously been subject to an agrimonetary
1 January 1993 are laid down by Regulation (EEC) No                   increase in national currency terms greater than the
3813 /92 (*); whereas, on 2 August 1993 , the ministers of            reduction in question ;
financial affairs and the governors of the central banks
decided to temporarily increase to 15 % the marginal
intervention thresholds of currencies participating in the            Whereas Article 8 of Regulation (EEC) No 3813 /92
exchange-rate mechanism of the European Monetary                      provides for the possibility of granting compensatory aid
System ; whereas, from the agrimonetary point of view,                for loss of income resulting from the average movement
therefore, all the currencies of the Member States must               of the agricultural exchange rate over the previous 12
temporarily be considered as floating currencies ;                    months ; whereas, so as to avoid the difficulties that
                                                                      excessive delays in payments could cause for farmers, the
                                                                      payment of advances should be authorized where a
Whereas the new monetary situation creates a risk of                  tendency towards a revaluation , on average, is noted ;
wider and more frequent fluctuations for all the agri­                whereas the payment of annual instalments of
cultural conversion rates ; whereas uniform implementing              compensatory aid is no longer economically justified
measures applicable in all Member States must be                      where movements in the national currency compensate
adopted at Community level to ensure greater stability ;              for past losses of income,
whereas , to that end, the four-point limit on the
monetary gap between Member States may be widened,
although not beyond the five-point level above which                  HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
gaps provoke specultative movements of goods ; whereas,
moreover, in order to take account, in particular, of the
difficulties caused by currencies which revalue, the
maximum monetary gap allowed for a particular                                                   A rticle 1
currency may be varied on the basis of the nature of the
currency movement ;                                                   Regulation (EEC) No 3813 /92 is hereby amended as
                                                                     follows :
O OJ No L 387 , 31 . 12 . 1992 , p. 1                                 1 . the following Article 4a is inserted
 ---pagebreak--- 4 . 11 . 93                               Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 298 / 11
     'Article 4a                                                            monetary gaps for the Member States concerned
                                                                            that exceed :
    Until 31 December 1994, and notwithstanding Article
    4:                                                                      — three points where the gaps are positive, or
     1 . The agricultural conversion rate for a floating                    — two points where the gaps are negative ,
          currency shall be adjusted where the monetary gap
          for the last reference period of a month exceeds :                shall immediately be reduced to the above limits.
         — three points where the gap is positive , or                      This adjustment shall be made after any adjustment
                                                                            required pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 .';
         — two points where the gap is negative .
          In such cases , the new agricultural conversion rate      2 . the following paragraph is added to Article 7 :
         shall be fixed so as to reduce the monetary gap by
         half, without prejudice to paragraph 3 , and shall              'Application of this Article may not be requested for
         take effect from the start of the following month .             amounts for which an agricultural conversion rate
                                                                         lower than the new rate concerned was applied during
    2 . In the event of a monetary realignment affecting                the 24 months preceding the introduction of the
         the central rates determined for the Member States             latter.';
         with fixed currencies, the agricultural conversion
         rates shall be adjusted immediately so as to :
                                                                    3 . the following is inserted after Article 8 (2):
         — eliminate the monetary gaps of the fixed
              currencies ,
                                                                        '2a. Member States granting compensatory aid may
              and                                                       pay an advance out of national funds based on the
                                                                        loss of agricultural income during the period in
         — reduce the monetary gaps of the floating                     question where the average agricultural conversion
              currencies by half where they exceed the limits           rate over at least three consecutive months fulfils the
              referred to in paragraph 1 over an appropriate            conditions set out in paragraph 1 for the average agri­
              reference period, without prejudice to                    cultural conversion rate over the previous 12 months .
              paragraph 3 .                                                                                   i
                                                                        The level of advances paid shall not affect the
         However, should a monetary realignment lead to a               Community contribution to the financing of
         monetary gap for a fixed currency :                            compensatory aid . The Member State shall not be
         — less than or equal to 0,5 points , this gap shall            obliged to recover advances exceeding the maximum
              be dismantled by the beginning of the next                aid permissible pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 .
              marketing year at the latest,
                                                                        2b. Where the average rate triggering off the
         — greater than five points where the gap is                    granting of aid is lower than the average agricultural
              positive or four points where the gap is                  conversion rate applied subsequently for 12 conse­
              negative, this gap shall immediately be reduced           cutive months , the annual instalments of aid payable
              to two points less than the above limits. The             after the 12 months in question shall be cancelled or
              remaining gap shall be dismantled over a                  reduced in accordance with the procedure laid down
              maximum period of 12 months from the date                 in Article 12 .'
              of realignment.
         The adjustments of the agricultural conversion                                       Article 2
         rates provided for in the second subparagraph shall
         be made by the Commission in accordance with               This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day
         the procedure laid down in Article 12 .                    following its publication in the Official Journal of the
                                                                    European Communities.
    3 . If, over a reference period, the absolute value of
         the difference in the gaps between two currencies          This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
         of any two Member States exceeds five points, any          directly applicable in all Member States .