Commission Regulation (EC) No 414/2004 of 5 March 2004 adopting specific measures with a view to adapting the arrangements for administering tariff quotas on banana imports as a result of the accession of new Member States on 1 May 2004

Commission Regulation (EC) No 414/2004
of 5 March 2004
adopting specific measures with a view to adapting the arrangements for administering tariff quotas on banana imports as a result of the accession of new Member States on 1 May 2004
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 of 13 February 1993 on the common organisation of the market in bananas(1), and in particular Article 20 thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Commission Regulation (EC) No 896/2001(2) lays down detailed rules for applying Council Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 as regards the arrangements for importing bananas into the Community. Titles I and II of that Regulation define the categories of traditional and non-traditional operators who may supply the Community under the tariff quotas opened each year.
(2) In view of the accession to the Community of 10 new Member States on 1 May 2004, it is necessary to identify the operators established in the Community as constituted on 30 April 2004, whether or not already registered, who have supplied the markets of the countries acceding on 1 May 2004 and who meet the conditions laid down in Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation (EC) No 896/2001, in the case of traditional operators, and Articles 6 to 12 of that Regulation, in the case of non-traditional operators.
(3) In order to draw up a list of operators who qualify to participate in the tariff quota arrangements for banana imports in accordance with the criteria laid down by Community law, reference periods should be adopted which are representative of developments in trade. To that end, the three-year period 2000 to 2002, for which import statistics are available, should be used for traditional operators. For non-traditional operators, 2002 and 2003, which immediately precede the year of registration, may be used for the purposes of Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 896/2001.
(4) In the case of traditional importers, it should be made clear that only primary imports within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 896/2001 which have actually been used to supply accession countries and which have resulted in quantities of bananas being released for free circulation in an accession country may be taken into account for determining a specific additional reference quantity. Such operators should therefore be required to produce the customs documents attesting to release for free circulation in the accession countries.
(5) In the case of non-traditional operators, in order to avoid excessive applications for allocations bearing no relation to their actual capacity, a maximum limit should be set for each application for an allocation, expressed as a percentage of the quantities actually released for free circulation during one of the years preceding registration and for which the operator must produce the appropriate supporting documents.
(6) In order to facilitate the scrutiny of operators' applications and harmonise how they are processed, the main supporting documents which may be produced as evidence that the requirements have been met for admission to each of the two categories of operators should be specified.
(7) The necessary provisions should also be laid down to ensure adequate communication between the Member States and the Commission and to organise the additional verifications and checks needed to detect and prevent false claims, prevent irregularities and ensure the smooth functioning of the arrangements for administering tariff quotas for banana imports.
(8) This Regulation will apply without prejudice to any rules which the Commission might subsequently adopt with a view to full application of the arrangements introduced by Regulations (EEC) No 404/93 and (EC) No 896/2001 in the enlarged Community.
(9) The Management Committee for Bananas has not issued an opinion by the time limit laid down by its Chairman,