Tariff quotas for high quality beef, and for pigmeat, poultrymeat, wheat and meslin, and brans, sharps and other residues. Codification

PURPOSE: to codify Council Regulation (EC) No 774/94 opening and providing for the administration of certain Community tariff quotas for high-quality beef, and for pigmeat, poultrymeat, wheat and meslin, and brans, sharps and other residues.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the Council and the European Parliament.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.

BACKGROUND: Council Regulation (EC) No 774/94 has been substantially amended several times. It is recalled that on 1 April 1987, the Commission decided to instruct its staff that all acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement. The Edinburgh European Council (December 1992) confirmed this, stressing the importance of codification.

The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission have agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure may be used for the fast-track adoption of codification instruments.

CONTENT: in the interests of clarity and rationality, the purpose of this proposal is to undertake a codification of Council Regulation (EC) No 774/94 of 29 March 1994 opening and providing for the administration of certain Community tariff quotas for high-quality beef, and for pigmeat, poultrymeat, wheat and meslin, and brans, sharps and other residues.

The new Regulation will supersede the various acts incorporated in it. Furthermore, it fully preserves the content of the acts being codified and hence does no more than bring them together with only such formal amendments as are required by the codification exercise itself.

Opening of tariff quotas: the Union negotiated tariff concessions under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and under the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Those negotiations led to agreements which provide for the opening, under certain conditions, of certain annual Community tariff quotas for high-quality beef, and for pigmeat, poultrymeat, wheat and meslin, and brans, sharps and other residues.

The proposal aims therefore to open annual Community tariff quotas for high-quality beef, and for pigmeat, poultrymeat, wheat and meslin, and brans, sharps and other residues.

Management: the Commission:

• should be empowered to adopt delegated acts in respect of the adoption of amendments to this Regulation, should the volumes and other conditions of quota arrangements be adjusted, in particular as a result of a Council decision concluding an agreement with one or more third countries;
• should adopt, by means of implementing acts, rules necessary for the administration of the quota arrangements referred to in this Regulation and, as appropriate, provisions: (a) guaranteeing the nature, provenance and origin of the product; (b) relating to the recognition of the document allowing the guarantees referred to in point (a) to be verified; and (c) on the issue of import licences and their period of validity.