Introductory text

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 349 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament^f1,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee^f2,

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure,

Whereas:

In August and December 2007 the regional authorities of the Azores and Madeira requested, with the support of the Portuguese Government, an autonomous suspension of the Common Customs Tariff duties for a number of products in accordance with Article 299(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community. They justified their requests on the grounds that, in view of the remoteness of those islands, economic operators in the Azores and Madeira are at a severe commercial disadvantage, which has negative effects on demographic trends, employment and social and economic developments.

The local economies of the Azores and Madeira are to a large extent dependant on national and international tourism, a fairly volatile economic resource, which is determined by factors on which the local authorities and the Portuguese Government have hardly any influence. As a result, the economic development of the Azores and Madeira is severely restrained. In these circumstances it is necessary to support those economic sectors which are less dependent on the tourist industries in order to compensate the fluctuations of the tourist sector and thus to stabilise local employment.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 1657/93 of 24 June 1993 temporarily suspending the autonomous Common Customs Tariff duties on certain industrial products intended to equip the free zones of the Azores and Madeira^f3 did not have the desired effect in the last years before its expiry on 31 December 2008. This is in all likelihood due to the fact that the suspensions laid down in that Regulation were limited to the free zones of the Azores and Madeira and were therefore no longer used in the last years before their expiry. It is therefore appropriate to provide for new suspensions which are not restricted to industries located in free zones but can benefit to all types of economic operators located on the territory of those regions. The scope of commercial sectors benefiting from the suspensions should therefore cover the fishery, agricultural, industrial and service sectors.

In order to ensure that the suspensions laid down in this Regulation have an economic impact, it is appropriate to extend the range of products benefiting from the suspensions to finished goods for agricultural, commercial or industrial use, as well as to raw materials, parts and components used for agricultural purposes, industrial transformation or maintenance.

In order to give a long-term perspective to investors and enable economic operators to reach a level of industrial and commercial activity which stabilises the economic and social environment in the regions concerned, it is appropriate to suspend in full the Common Customs Tariff duties for certain goods for a period of 10 years as from 1 November 2010.

In order to ensure that only economic operators located on the territory of the Azores and Madeira benefit from these tariff measures, the suspensions should be made conditional on the end use of the products in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code^f4 and Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/93 establishing the Community Customs Code^f5.

In order to allow efficient operation of the suspensions, the authorities of the Azores and Madeira should take the necessary implementing measures and inform the Commission thereof.

The Commission should be permitted to adopt, if necessary, temporary measures designed to prevent any speculative movement of deflection of trade until a definitive solution for that movement will be adopted by the Council.

Amendments to the Combined Nomenclature may not give rise to any substantive changes to the nature of the suspension of duties. The Commission should therefore be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union for the purpose of making necessary amendments and technical adaptations to the list of goods for which a suspension applies,

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