Introductory text

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 37(2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Whereas:

Article 29(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 of 20 February 2006 on the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector^f1 fixes the traditional supply need for sugar for refining for the Community. This provision has been amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 2011/2006 of 19 December 2006 adapting Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 on the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector and Regulation (EC) No 320/2006 establishing a temporary scheme for the restructuring of the sugar industry in the Community, by reason of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union^f2, in order to provide for the distribution during the marketing years 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 of a traditional supply need of 198 748 tonnes for Bulgaria and 329 636 tonnes for Romania.

The full-time refiners in Bulgaria and Romania rely to a large extent on imports of raw cane sugar from traditional suppliers in certain third countries.

In order to avoid disruption of the supply of raw cane sugar for full-time refiners in Bulgaria and Romania, it is considered necessary to open tariff quotas for imports of such sugar into those Member States from third countries for a period covering those marketing years for which traditional supply needs have been distributed among Member States.

Import licences issued under the tariff quotas opened by this Regulation should be reserved for approved full-time refiners in Bulgaria and Romania.

The amount of the import duty applicable to imports under the tariff quotas opened by this Regulation should be fixed at a level which ensures fair competition in the Community sugar market, but which is not prohibitive for imports into Bulgaria and Romania. Taking into account that imports under these tariff quotas could be carried out from any third country it is therefore appropriate to fix the level of import duty at EUR 98 per tonne, which is the same level as fixed for CXL concessions sugar under Article 24 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 of 28 June 2006 laying down detailed rules of application for the 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 marketing years for the import and refining of sugar products under certain tariff quotas and preferential agreements^f3.

The monitoring and management of the tariff quotas opened by this Regulation may require at a later stage the adjustment of the criteria laid down for the content of import licence applications and import licences. In order to ensure that the necessary adjustments can be made in order to take account of changing market conditions, the Commission should be empowered to amend Article 3(3) of this Regulation,

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission^f4,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: