Commission Regulation (EC) No 127/2009 of 12 February 2009 laying down the procedure and conditions for the sale of cereals held by paying agencies or intervention agencies (Codified version)
Commission Regulation (EC) No 127/2009of 12 February 2009laying down the procedure and conditions for the sale of cereals held by paying agencies or intervention agencies(Codified version)THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation)OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p. 1., and in particular Article 43(f), in conjunction with Article 4 thereof,Whereas:(1)Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 of 28 July 1993 laying down the procedure and conditions for the sale of cereals held by intervention agenciesOJ L 191, 31.7.1993, p. 76. has been substantially amended several timesSee Annex II.. In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Regulation should be codified.(2)Cereals may be bought in by paying agencies or intervention agencies either under compulsory intervention measures as provided for in Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 or under special intervention measures as referred to in Article 47 of that Regulation.(3)Cereals held by the paying agencies or intervention agencies must be sold without any discrimination between Community purchasers. In principle invitations to tender permit that objective to be achieved. However, in certain cases it must be possible to use other methods of sale.(4)To ensure that all interested parties in the Community are treated equally, notices of invitation to tender must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and a reasonable time must elapse between the date of such publication and the first closing date for the submission of tenders. However, such publicity is not necessary for quantities of less than 5000 tonnes.(5)Products held in intervention storage are intended first and foremost for food and feed uses, to take account of specific situations on the cereals market. However, the quantity and quality of the products in intervention storage may, temporarily and occasionally, make it necessary to dispose of them for other purposes, in particular to meet the Community’s undertakings, where the situation of stocks so warrants and where supply to traditional food markets is not threatened.(6)The rise in processing cereals to produce biofuels for use in Community transport forms part of a raft of measures designed to meet the Community’s environmental commitments. Promoting the use of biofuels may therefore open a new market for agricultural products held in intervention storage in the Member States, provided that prices applicable to the sale of cereals reflect this specific market in biofuels. Nonetheless, purchasing cereals to produce bioethanol and its use as a biofuel may prove particularly difficult. Provision should therefore be made for selling intervention stocks at special prices in such cases.(7)Intervention stocks of cereals are sold on the Community market according to availability and market conditions. Sales may be influenced by or dependent upon specific or exceptional circumstances on those markets, and must therefore be able to take account of such circumstances. To this end, provision should be made for prices that avoid market disturbances and ensure that sales reflect those circumstances. This twofold objective can be achieved if the selling price is equal to the price on the market concerned, account being taken of the quality of the cereals put up for sale by tender and of transport costs.(8)The sale of cereals for export must take place at prices to be determined in each case in the light of market trends and requirements. Such sales must not, however, lead to distortions to the detriment of exports from the open market. A minimum selling price should therefore be fixed by the Commission on the basis of tenders submitted.(9)The minimum selling price is to be established by the Commission in the light of all the relevant data available on the day on which tenders are submitted. In order to prevent speculation and ensure identical conditions for all concerned in the invitation to tender, tenders must be accompanied by an application for an export licence with, if appropriate, an application for advance fixing of the export refund or levy.(10)Tenders for different lots are comparable one with another only where they relate to cereals in identical situations. Cereals put up for tender are stored in different places. Comparability may be better ensured by reimbursing to the successful tenderer the lowest costs of transport from the place where the cereals in question are stored and the place of exit. However, for budgetary reasons, such reimbursement can only be made in respect of the place of exit which can be reached at the lowest cost. That place must be determined by reference to its facilities for exporting cereals.(11)In Member States which do not have sea ports, tenderers for cereals put up for sale are penalised by higher transport costs. As a result of these additional costs, cereals are more difficult to export from those Member States, which results in particular in longer intervention storage and additional costs to the Community budget. Therefore provision should be made for the possibility, in certain cases, of financing the lowest transport costs between the place of storage and the place of exit, in order to make the tenders comparable.(12)The Croatian ports of Rijeka and Split were traditional ports of exit for the countries of central Europe before their accession to the Union. Rijeka and Split should therefore be included among the places of exit that can be considered when calculating the refundable transport costs for exports.(13)Invitations to tender can take place properly only if those concerned submit genuine tenders. That objective can be achieved by requiring that a security be paid, to be released on payment of the selling price within the time limit laid down.(14)In the case of invitations to tender for export, steps must be taken to ensure that the cereals are not put back on the Community market. That risk exists if the selling price is less than the minimum price to be observed in the case of resale on the internal market. Provision should accordingly be made in such cases for the lodging of a second security, which must be equal to the difference between the selling price and that minimum price. As a consequence, that security can be released only if the successful tenderer intending to export the cereals provides the proof referred to in Article 16 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 800/1999 of 15 April 1999 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of export refunds on agricultural productsOJ L 102, 17.4.1999, p. 11..(15)In the interests of sound management of the cereals intervention scheme, the information to be communicated by Member States to the Commission should be clarified. This information should be sent by electronic means.(16)In order to ensure that intervention stocks are disposed of rapidly and as far as possible in line with commercial practice, a certain time limit should be laid down in respect of the rights and obligations deriving from the award.(17)The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: