Commission Regulation (EC) No 616/2005 of 21 April 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 1623/2000 laying down detailed rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine with regard to market mechanisms

22.4.2005 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 103/15
COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 616/2005
of 21 April 2005
amending Regulation (EC) No 1623/2000 laying down detailed rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine with regard to market mechanisms
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine (1), and in particular Article 33 thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1623/2000 (2) provides for a system of disposal by public sale of wine alcohol for use as bio-ethanol in the Community. In order to enable the highest price offered by a tenderer to be obtained for such alcohol, the public sale system should be replaced by a tendering system.
(2) To that end, the same rules should be applied to the different types of disposal of wine alcohol, while the characteristics necessary for each use or final destination of the alcohol should be respected.
(3) In order to check that the alcohol is to be used for the production of bio-ethanol, Member States approve firms which they deem eligible on the basis of their capacity, the plants where the alcohol is processed, their annual processing capacity, and the certificates from the national authorities of the Member State of the final purchaser attesting that the final purchaser uses the alcohol only to produce bio-ethanol and that the bio-ethanol is used only in the fuel sector.
(4) Sales by tender should be held each quarter, first in order to ensure that the alcohol stored by Member States’ intervention agencies is disposed of, and second in order to provide some guarantee of supply for firms established in the European Community which use alcohol in the fuel sector.
(5) The Member States should send information at the end of each month on the quantities of wine, wine lees and fortified wine which have been distilled in the previous month, as well as the quantities of alcohol, broken down into neutral alcohol, raw alcohol and spirits.
(6) Regulation (EC) No 1623/2000 should be amended accordingly.
(7) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Wine,