6.12.2007 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 320/18
COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1433/2007
of 5 December 2007
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(1) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Article 31(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 stipulates that alcohol taken over by the intervention agencies is disposed of either by public sale or by tendering procedures.
(2) Tendering procedures for alcohol are the only sales from intervention in the agricultural sector for which the Commission manages the decision on and opens each sale of this product. In the interests of simplifying legislation and with a view to harmonising measures to manage agricultural markets under the single common organisation of the market, a standing invitation to tender for the sale of alcohol should be opened by the Commission as well as partial invitations to tender opened by the Member States.
(3) To ensure that the information on the partial invitations to tender in the Member States is accessible by all approved undertakings in the Community, that information should be published in electronic form.
(4) To prevent all the alcohol in stock from being sold all at once or for the benefit of just one undertaking, the maximum quantity that may be put up for sale under each partial invitation to tender should be limited.
(5) To ensure that alcohol is disposed of regularly and optimally, and taking account of the slack period during the summer and at Christmas, a deadline for the partial invitations to tender should be laid down once a month, except in July and December.
(6) The various stages and characteristics of the partial invitations to tender should be specified.
(7) Recent experience has shown that plans of the plants where the alcohol is processed into absolute alcohol are not essential for approval of undertakings that may participate in the sale of alcohol for use in the form of bioethanol in the Community. That requirement should therefore be removed from the list of documents to be provided for approval.
(8) To protect the interests of tendering undertakings during the partial invitations to tender, provision should be laid down to limit the physical movement of alcohol put up for sale between the time when the notice for the partial invitation to tender is published and its removal by the undertaking awarded the contract.
(9) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1623/2000 (2) should therefore be amended accordingly.
(10) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Wine,
Regulation (EC) No 1623/2000 is hereby amended as follows:
1. Title III, Chapter IV is amended as follows:
(a) in subsection III, Articles 92 to 94(d) shall be replaced by the following:
(a) the special rules applicable to the tendering procedure and the location of the stores in which the alcohol to be sold is stored;
(b) the quantity of alcohol, expressed in hectolitres of alcohol at 100 % vol., covered by the partial tendering procedure;
(c) the lots;
(d) the payment terms;
(e) the formalities for obtaining samples;
(f) the amount of the tendering security referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 94(1) and the performance guarantee referred to in Article 94c(3).
(a) a declaration by the undertaking stating that it is capable of using at least 50 000 hl of alcohol a year;
(b) the location of the undertaking’s administrative offices;
(c) the names and addresses of the plants where the alcohol is processed into absolute alcohol, and an indication of their annual processing capacity;
(d) a copy of the permit granted by the national authorities of the Member State concerned to operate the plants;
(e) an assurance by the undertaking that all final purchasers of the alcohol will only use it for the production of fuel in the Community in the form of bioethanol.
(b) in subsection IV, Articles 95 and 96 shall be replaced by the following:
(a) the quantity of alcohol, expressed in hectolitres of alcohol at 100 % vol., that may be offered for sale;
(b) the type of alcohol concerned;
(c) the quality of the lots of alcohol, laying down maximum and minimum values for the characteristics referred to in Article 96(4)(d)(i) and (ii) of this Regulation.
(a) the location of the lot, including a reference identifying each vat containing the alcohol, and the quantity of alcohol in each vat;
(b) the total quantity, expressed in hectolitres of alcohol at 100 % vol. The quantity may vary by up to 1 % and may not exceed 50 000 hectolitres;
(c) the minimum alcoholic strength of the alcohol in each vat, expressed in % vol.;
(d) if possible, the quality of the lot, specifying upper and lower limits for the following:
(i) the acidity, expressed in grams of acetic acid per hectolitre of alcohol at 100 % vol.;
(ii) the methanol content, expressed in grams per hectolitre of alcohol at 100 % vol.;
(e) reference to the intervention measure which gave rise to the production of the alcohol, specifying the relevant Article of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999.’
2. Article 101(4) is replaced by the following:
3. Article 102 shall be replaced as follows:
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.