Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,

Having regard to Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of 29 September 2000 on the system of the European Communities' own resources^f1,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000 implementing Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources^f2, and in particular the second subparagraph of Article 6(4) thereof,

Having consulted the Advisory Committee on Own Resources,

Whereas:

Commission Decision 97/245/EC, Euratom^f3 was adopted to take account of the changes which Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1355/96^f4 had made to Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 of 29 May 1989 implementing Decision 88/376/EEC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources^f5. Decision 97/245/EC, Euratom thus laid down the procedure for the transmission of certain information by the Member States to the Commission under the Communities' own resources system.

Since Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 was consolidated by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000, the references to Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1552/89 given in some of the annexes to Decision 97/245/EC, Euratom must be amended for the sake of clarity.

The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) expired on 23 July 2002. Accordingly, there are no longer any customs duties which have to be entered in the accounts as own resources under this Treaty.

Account must be taken of the changes resulting from Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom, which replaced Council Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom^f6, in particular as regards the adjustment of the rate of the deduction to cover the costs involved in collecting ‘traditional’ own resources. Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom laid down a new 25% deduction rate, except for amounts which should have been made available before 28 February 2001 for which the Member States will continue to deduct 10%.

Account should be taken of the new reporting obligations inserted in Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2028/2004. It is thus laid down that, together with the final quarterly statement for a given year, the Member States must submit an estimate of the total amount of entitlements entered in the separate account at the end of each year for which recovery is unlikely. The Member States are also obliged to mention amounts declared or deemed to be irrecoverable in an annex to the quarterly statement for the separate account.

Steps should be taken to capitalise on the experience acquired by the Member States in the transmission of the accounting statements referred to in Article 6(3)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 and to improve the presentation of the forms used to that end.

Decision 97/245/EC, Euratom should, therefore, be amended accordingly.

A suitable length of time should be allowed to apply the reporting procedures for the amended statements,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: