Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty of Accession of Croatia, and in particular Article 3(4) thereof,

Having regard to the Act of Accession of Croatia, and in particular Articles 41, 16 thereof in conjunction with point 4 of Section 3(a) of Annex IV thereto and Article 18 thereof in conjunction with Part II of Section 4 of Annex V thereto,

Whereas:

The rules concerning production and trade arrangements for the sugar market inserted in Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation)^f1 by the Act of Accession of Croatia should be applicable as from 1 July 2013, subject to the entry into force of the Act of Accession on that date. However, for the marketing year 2012/2013, the entire beet sugar production of Croatia will have been produced under national arrangements. Transitional measures are therefore required to change over from the production and trade arrangements in force in Croatia to those provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007. Consequently, the provisions on minimum beet prices, inter-professional agreements, production charge, quota system and quota allocation provided for in Articles 49, 50, 51, Article 55(1)(b) and Article 56 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 should not apply to Croatia in the marketing year 2012/2013.

In accordance with the Act of Accession, for a period of up to three marketing years an annual import quota of 40 000 tonnes of raw cane sugar for refining is reserved for Croatia at an import duty of EUR 98 per tonne.

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

There is a considerable risk of disruption on the markets in the sugar sector by products being introduced into Croatia before its accession to the Union for speculation purposes. Provisions facilitating the transition should therefore be made to avoid such speculative movements or other market disturbances. Specific rules are necessary in order to take into account the particularities of the sugar sector.

Provisions should be made to prevent operators from circumventing the application of charges on certain sugar products in free circulation by placing goods which have been already released for free circulation in the Union as constituted at 30 June 2013 or in Croatia before its accession under a suspensive regime, either in temporary storage or under one of the treatments or procedures referred to in Article 4(15)(b) and (16)(b) to (g) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code^f2.

In accordance with the Act of Accession, for the quantities of stocks of sugar or isoglucose exceeding the normal carry-over stock Croatia are to be charged with a payment to the general budget of the Union.

Determination of the surplus quantities should be carried out by the Commission on the basis of trade developments and production and consumption trends in Croatia during the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2013. For that determination, besides sugar and isoglucose, other products with a significant added sugar equivalent content should also be considered as they could also be possible targets of speculation. In cases where the determined surplus quantity of sugar and isoglucose is not eliminated from the Union market by 31 October 2014 at the latest, Croatia should be made financially responsible for the relevant quantity.

The payment to be charged for Croatia should reflect the cost related to the effects of the surplus stock on the Union sugar market. Therefore, the amount to be charged to Croatia and assigned to the Union budget in case of non-elimination of surplus stocks should be calculated on the basis of the highest positive difference between the average Union sugar market price and the world market price of white sugar during the period from 1 July 2013 to 31 October 2014 increased by EUR 50 per tonne. The amount of EUR 50 per tonne corresponds to the standard deviation in the prices in the Member States from the average Union price for white sugar during the last 12 months. That increase is therefore needed in order to take into account that prices of white sugar in different regions of the Union may differ from the monthly average published by the Commission. For the purpose of that calculation the monthly average of the quotations at the London No 5 white sugar futures market for the nearest delivery month for which trading of white sugar is possible, should be considered as the world market price.

It is in the interest of both the Union and Croatia to prevent the accumulation of surplus stocks and in any case be able to identify those operators involved in major speculative trade movements. For that purpose Croatia should have in place on 1 July 2013 a system that enables the identification of those responsible operators or individuals for such developments. That system should allow Croatia to identify the economic operators which have contributed to private surplus stocks with a view to recovering, as far as possible, any charge paid to the Union budget. Croatia should use that system to compel identified operators to eliminate their individual surplus quantity from the Union market. Where operators responsible for private surplus stock cannot provide appropriate proof of their elimination it is necessary for Croatia to charge an amount to such operators. It is appropriate to fix such an amount at a level sufficiently high to dissuade the concerned operators from preserving their private surplus stocks thus avoiding all risks of accumulation of stocks in Croatia. For consistency reasons, the amount to charge by Croatia for identified surplus stocks should be EUR 500 per tonne (in white sugar equivalent or dry matter equivalent) for the surplus stocks not eliminated. This is the same amount as the one fixed for the levy provided for in Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 967/2006 of 29 June 2006 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 as regards sugar production in excess of the quota^f3. While both economic operators and households may contribute to the private surplus stocks, it is most likely to be operators and it is not feasible to require households to contribute to that amount.

For the determination of surplus stocks and the elimination of identified surplus stocks, Croatia should provide the Commission with the most recent statistics on trade, production and consumption of the products concerned, as well as proof of elimination from the market of the identified surplus stocks within the deadline to be fixed by the Commission.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,

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