14.7.2007 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 184/1
COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 824/2007
of 10 July 2007
opening and providing for the management of autonomous Community tariff quotas for certain fishery products for the period 2007 to 2009
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 26 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas:
(1) Community supplies of certain fishery products currently depend on imports from third countries. It is in the Community's interest to suspend in part or in whole the customs duties for those products, within Community tariff quotas of an appropriate volume. In order not to jeopardise the development prospects of those products in the Community and in order to ensure an adequate supply to satisfy user industries, such quotas should be opened, applying variable customs duties in accordance with the sensitivity of the product in question on the Community market.
(2) Equal and uninterrupted access to those quotas should be ensured for all Community importers and the rates laid down for the quotas should be applied without interruption to all imports of the products concerned into all Member States until the quotas have been used up.
(3) To ensure the efficiency of a common management of the quotas, Member States should be permitted to draw from the quota amount the necessary quantities corresponding to their actual imports. Since that method of management requires close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission, the latter should in particular be able to monitor the rate at which the quotas are used up and should inform the Member States accordingly.
(4) Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code (1) provides for a system of tariff quota management which follows the chronological order of the dates of acceptance of the declarations of release for free circulation. The tariff quotas opened by this Regulation should be managed by the Commission and the Member States in accordance with that system.
(5) Council Regulation (EC) No 379/2004 of 24 February 2004 opening and providing for the management of autonomous Community tariff quotas for certain fishery products (2) expired on 31 December 2006. No autonomous tariff quotas were available for the period between 1 January 2007 and the entry into force of this Regulation. Furthermore, given the fact that all quotas opened by this Regulation are subject to end use conditions in order to benefit from the favourable tariff treatment, a retro-active implementation of this Regulation is not possible. Therefore, in order to ensure a certain continuity with the previous quota system, a successor regime should be foreseen which allows to grant a reduction on import duties for fishery products released into free circulation between 1 January 2007 and the entry into force of this Regulation. The successor regime should take due account of the end use conditions and the available quantities of the specific quotas.
(6) Given the urgency of the matter, it is important to grant an exception to the six-week period mentioned in paragraph 1(3) of the Protocol on the role of national parliaments in the European Union annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaties establishing the European Communities,
1.   Import duties on the products listed in the Annex shall be suspended, within tariff quotas, at the rates for the periods, and up to the amounts, indicated therein.
2.   Imports of the products listed in the Annex shall be covered by the quotas referred to in paragraph 1 only if the declared customs value is at least equal to the reference price fixed, or to be fixed, in accordance with Article 29 of Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 of 17 December 1999 on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products (3).
The tariff quotas referred to in Article 1 shall be managed by the Commission in accordance with Articles 308a, 308b and 308c of Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93.
The Commission and the Member States shall cooperate closely to ensure that this Regulation is complied with.
1.   Customs duties for fishery products released into free circulation between 1 January 2007 and 17 July 2007 which fall within the product scope of one of the tariff quotas listed in the Annex may be reduced on request of the declarant in accordance with the rates of duty set out therein.
2.   The request shall be submitted by 14 August 2007 to the customs office in charge of the release into free circulation of the product in question, indicating the quota concerned. It shall be accompanied with all relevant documentation which prove that the imported product falls within the scope of the quota and that it had been or will be used in accordance with the end use conditions set out in the Annex for the tariff quota concerned.
3.   This Article shall apply only where the balance of the relevant tariff quota so permits at the date of acceptance of the duly justified request. Articles 308a, 308b and 308c of Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 shall apply mutatis mutandis.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.