Regulation (EEC) No 1411/71 of the Council of 29 June 1971 laying down additional rules on the common organisation of the market in milk and milk products for products falling within tariff heading No 04.01

REGULATION (EEC) No 1411/71 OF THE COUNCIL  of 29 June 1971  laying down additional rules on the common organisation of the market in milk and milk products for products falling within tariff heading No 04.01
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Articles 42 and 43 thereof;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission;
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament;
Whereas Article 22 (2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 1 of 27 June 1968 on the common organisation of the market in milk and milk products, as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1410/71 2, provides for derogation from certain provisions for products falling within tariff heading No 04.01, since market conditions for those products differ considerably from those for other milk products ; whereas special measures must therefore be adopted;
Whereas products falling within heading No 04.01 form a substantial source of income for farmers ; whereas they differ in particular from other milk products in that, at consumer level, it is difficult to replace them by other products ; whereas their sale thus forms a steady basic income for milk producers;
Whereas products falling within heading No 04.01 also have great importance as basic foodstuffs for the whole population ; whereas they are subject to special quality requirements;
Whereas it is therefore in the interest both of producers and of consumers of milk to lay down rules enabling the market in those products to be developed as fully as possible;
Whereas that objective may be achieved by supplying products of guaranteed quality which meet the requirements and wishes of consumers ; whereas high standards of production and marketing should therefore be established for the products in question without prejudice to other measures to be adopted for the protection of public health ; whereas, however, such measures must take account of certain special cases ; whereas it is not possible at present to harmonise national legislation on the enrichment of skimmed milk or semi-skimmed milk with fat-free dried milk ingredients ; whereas it should therefore be open to Member States to continue to apply such measures;
Whereas, moreover, in order to achieve the above objective through high-quality supply, it is necessary to ensure delivery of raw milk of the highest quality to milk processors ; whereas this may be achieved by varying the payment for milk delivered to milk processors for the preparation of drinking milk according to its quality;
Whereas the transition from national arrangements to the system established by this Regulation must take place as smoothly as possible ; whereas provision should therefore be made for the adoption of transitional measures;
Whereas the fourth subparagraph of Article 22 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 provides inter alia that the Republic of Italy may retain until 31 March 1970 the measures regulating the supply of drinking milk to certain areas;
Whereas the Italian market for drinking milk is exceptional in that certain communes have with State permission established milk centres which exclusively supply the communal area with drinking milk and perform certain social duties ; whereas those centres may not as a rule process milk into milk products other than drinking milk ; whereas milk sales by communal centres form only a small part of the milk marketed for direct consumption in Italy;  1OJ No L 148, 28.6.1968, p. 13. 2OJ No L 148, 3.7.1971, p. 3.
Whereas Italy has under preparation measures aimed at altering the structure of those milk centres to enable them to extend their production programme ; whereas, in order not to compromise these structural changes, the Italian Republic should be authorised to maintain for a limited period the provisions applying on 31 March 1970 to those milk centres which were at that date operating under those provisions;