Council Regulation (EC) No 2744/98 of 14 December 1998 amending Regulation (EC) No 355/94 and extending the temporary derogation applicable to Germany and Austria

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2744/98 of 14 December 1998 amending Regulation (EC) No 355/94 and extending the temporary derogation applicable to Germany and Austria
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 28 thereof,
Having regard to the Commission proposal (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),
Whereas the second subparagraph of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 355/94 of 14 February 1994 amending Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty (4) provided for the application until 31 December 1997 of a temporary derogation to the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria concerning the application of a threshold of ECU 75 for the allowance applicable to goods imported by travellers entering German or Austrian territory by a land frontier linking the two Member States to countries other than Member States and EFTA members or, where appropriate, by means of coastal navigation from those countries;
Whereas these provisions take account of the economic difficulties likely to be caused by the amount of the allowances applicable to travellers importing goods into the Community in the situations described above;
Whereas, by letters of 24 June and 23 July 1997, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria requested an extension of the derogation provided for in the second subparagraph of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 355/94; whereas their request is based on the fact that the economic difficulties that had prompted adoption of Regulations (EC) No 355/94 and (EC) No 3316/94 had persisted and, in some cases, worsened;
Whereas account should be taken of the situation described by the two Member States;
Whereas an extension of the derogation should, however, be accompanied by the fixing of a deadline for bringing the threshold of the allowance applied by Germany and Austria into line with that in force on that date in the other Member States, the immediate raising of the threshold applicable to the two Member States in order to contribute towards limiting distortions of competition and an undertaking by the Member States that they will gradually and jointly raise the threshold in order to bring it into line with the Community threshold by 1 January 2003,