Commission Regulation (EC) No 443/98 of 25 February 1998 on payment for certain quantities of rice taken over by the Greek intervention agency in respect of the 1996/97 marketing year

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 443/98 of 25 February 1998 on payment for certain quantities of rice taken over by the Greek intervention agency in respect of the 1996/97 marketing year
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 3072/95 of 22 December 1995 on the common organisation of the market in rice (1), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 192/98 (2), and in particular Article 8(b) thereof,
Whereas Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1528/96 of 30 July 1996 on the taking over of paddy rice by the intervention agencies and fixing the corrective amounts, price increases and reductions to be applied (3), provides that the intervention agency may take over the paddy rice not at the marketing centre specified by the seller but at the place where the goods are located;
Whereas, pursuant to that provision, paddy rice was taken over and stored in Greece in the seller's warehouses; whereas in a large number of cases those goods had already been stored for several months before being taken over; whereas, for the sake of sound administration, it is justified, prior to final payment for the quantities taken over, to check the quantities in question by means of the volumetric method of measurement; whereas, on the basis of experience, a difference of the order of 6 % is admissible between the weight established during weighing and the result obtained by that method of measurement taking account of natural settling of the goods;
Whereas, as a result, payment should be made on the basis of the results obtained by the aforementioned method plus the tolerance margin; whereas, however, the seller should be given the opportunity to request payment for the weight established following weighing; whereas, in such cases, the costs arising from weighing must continue to be at the seller's expense where the weight established is lower than the quantity indicated in the written offer previously submitted to the intervention agency, taking account of the percentage loss permitted during storage; whereas additional technical measures should be adopted;
Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Cereales,