Article 9
United Kingdom
Approval may be granted to an operator who submits a request to the competent authority before 13:00, Brussels time, on 23 May 2003 accompanied by documentary proof that:
he/she has been engaged on his/her own account in the commercial activity of importing into the Community, or exporting from the Community, beef falling within CN codes 0201, 0202 or 0206 29 91 during the years 2001 and 2002;
by virtue of this activity:
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he/she has imported in the course of the two years concerned a minimum of 100 tonnes of such beef expressed in product weight, or
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he/she has exported in the course of the two years concerned a minimum of 220 tonnes of such beef expressed in product weight,
in, at least, two operations per year.
Operators who at 1 January 2003 have ceased their activities in the beef and veal sector shall not be approved for the purpose of this subquota.
In order to prove the commercial activity of his/her own account as referred to in paragraph 1(a), the operator shall present documentary proofs in form of commercial invoices and official accounts as well as any other documents showing to the satisfaction of the Member State concerned that the required commercial activity is related solely to the applicant concerned.
Proof of import or export shall be provided exclusively by means of customs documents of release for free circulation or export documents duly endorsed by the customs authorities.
Member States may accept copies of the above documents duly certified by the competent authorities.
For the purpose of paragraph 1(a) and (b), beef used as the reference quantity under subquota I can be declared as reference quantity under subquota II.
Member States shall examine and verify the validity of the documentation presented.
Member States shall verify that applicants are not related to one another within the meaning of Article 143 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93f1, where:
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in the proof of imports or exports referred to in paragraph 3, two or more applicants are entered as having the same postal address, or
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two or more applicants at the time of application are registered for VAT purposes on the same postal address, or
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Member States have grounds to suspect that applicants are connected in terms of management, staff or operation.
Where related applicants are consequently identified, all applications concerned shall be rejected unless the applicants concerned can provide further evidence to the satisfaction of the competent authority that they are independent from one another in terms of management, staff and all operations linked to their commercial or technical activity.
In application of paragraph 5, where a Member State has grounds to suspect that an applicant is connected in terms of management, staff or operations with an applicant in another Member State, the two Member States shall mutually verify whether a relationship exists within the meaning of Article 143 of Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93.
For this purpose Member States shall establish a list of applicants, containing their name and address, which shall be sent by fax to the Commission before 31 May 2003. The Commission shall subsequently distribute to all Member States the lists received.
A company applying for approval formed by a merger of companies each having rights to apply pursuant to paragraphs 1 to 3 shall enjoy the same rights as those former companies.