Article 3 Application for authorization

An application for the issue of a prior authorization shall be submitted to the competent authorities appointed by the Member States using the form shown in Annex I, by or on behalf of a person satisfying the conditions under Article 2 of the basic Regulation.

The competent authorities may, under the conditions fixed by them, allow the submission of applications to be transmitted or printed by electronic means which may, in order to allow for simplification, depart from the format as contained at Annex I. However all documents and evidence, required according to paragraph 3, must be available to the competent authorities.

The application and all further correspondence shall be completed in the language, or in one of the official languages, of the Member State in which the application is submitted and shall be used throughout the procedure as regards the applicant.

An application shall be accompanied by all documents or evidence, whether originals or copies, the production of which is necessary for its examination, especially the contract concluded with the undertaking responsible for carrying out the processing operations in the third country or any written evidence considered to be equivalent thereto.

Additional sheets may be appended to the application where there is a need to expand on certain particulars required. Any document, evidence or sheet appended to the application shall constitute an integral part thereof. The number of accompanying documents shall be mentioned in the application.

The competent authorities may request further information if this is required for the handling of the application. Where appropriate, the competent authorities may accept references to an earlier application in support of a new request.

A request for prior authorization can only concern one category of compensating products and one specific third country.

When the request concerns products subject, in the named third country, to specific quantitive limits with respect to economic outward processing, the applicant must declare that he has not and will not introduce another request concerning the same category and third country to another Member State's competent authorities, as long as he has not received a decision on his request for a prior authorization. When he introduces a further request having received a prior authorization for a category and a specific third country for the same quota period, the applicant must mention the prior authorization obtained.

The requests introduced on the basis of Article 3 (4) (1) of the basic Regulation may not cover an amount superior to the total quantity for which the applicant has carried out outward processing under the economic outward processing arrangements for the category and the country concerned in the reference period, adjustments being made, where applicable, of the quantities pursuant to Article 3 (4) (2) and (3) and Article 3 (5) (5) (6) of the basic Regulation.

The requests introduced on the basis of Article 3 (5) (1) to (3) of the basic Regulation may not cover for each country concerned, an amount superior to the one set out for the specific category in Annex 3. The total value of processing in third countries requested in the application, where applicable taking into account earlier authorizations for the same quota period, may not, however, exceed 50 % of the value of the applicant's Community production as defined in Article 2 (4).

The applicant must undertake to keep stock records in the Community which allow the customs supervising office to control the quantities of the temporary export goods and the compensating products reimported.

In lodging an application signed by the applicant or his authorized representative, the applicant expresses the intention to benefit from the arrangements, without prejudice to any sanctions that may be taken under the rules in force in the Member States, and certifies that:

• the particulars given in the application are correct,

• the documents or evidence appended are authentic,

  and

• all obligations and conditions connected with the issuing and the utilization of the prior authorization according to the basic Regulation or in the present Regulation are met or, where appropriate, will be honoured.