Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EU) No 389/2012 of 2 May 2012 on administrative cooperation in the field of excise duties and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2073/2004^f1, and in particular Article 22 and Article 34(5) thereof,

Whereas:

Regulation (EU) No 389/2012 establishes a framework for the simplification and the strengthening of administrative cooperation between Member States in the field of excise duties.

Article 21 of Council Directive 2008/118/EC of 16 December 2008 concerning the general arrangements for excise duty and repealing Directive 92/12/EEC^f2 requires the verification of the details of a draft electronic administrative document by the Member State of dispatch before excise goods may be moved under duty suspension. Commission Regulation (EC) No 684/2009 of 24 July 2009 implementing Council Directive 2008/118/EC as regards the computerised procedures for the movement of excise goods under suspension of excise duty^f3 specifies the content of the draft electronic administrative document. Since the information in that administrative document relating to excise authorisations is subject to verification against the details of the corresponding national registers the details of each national register should be made available to each Member State of dispatch regularly and should be kept up to date.

The information contained in the national registers concerning economic operators engaged in moving excise goods under duty suspension arrangements is to be automatically exchanged through a central register of economic operators (Central Register) to be operated by the Commission as provided for in Article 19(4) of Regulation (EU) No 389/2012.

To facilitate the exchange of information through the Central Register it is necessary to lay down the structure and content of the standard formats to be used, including the codes to be entered into those formats.

To ensure that the available data in the Central Register is correct and automatically updated, the central excise liaison office or liaison department should notify and forward modifications of their national registers to the Central Register.

In order for the data stored in the national registers to be correct and up-to-date, the central excise liaison office or liaison department should update the national register on the same day that a modification to an authorisation occurs and should forward modifications to the Central Register without delay.

In order to ensure that Member States have an accurate copy of the details of other national registers the central excise liaison office or designated liaison department should arrange for the regular and timely receipt of new modifications from the Central Register.

It is necessary for economic operators to have a means to verify that their authorisation details have been accurately processed and distributed by the Central Register and to check the details of a trading partner before submitting a draft electronic administrative document. In order to enable such verification of the validity of the excise numbers as provided for in Article 20(1) of Regulation (EU) No 389/2012, the Commission should provide the necessary key details of an authorisation kept in the Central Register upon production of a valid unique excise number. Moreover, rules for correcting inaccurate information in relation to the authorisation of an economic operator should be laid down.

To ensure that the Central Register is being operated efficiently, the guaranteed maximum time to process a notification of the modification of a national register or a common request, it is necessary to specify the level of availability of the Central Register and of the national registers as well as the circumstances under which the availability or performance of the Central Register or the national registers may be allowed to fall below these levels.

In order to provide for the evaluation of the operation of the Central Register the Commission should extract statistical information from the register and deliver it to the Member States on a monthly basis.

In order to allow the Commission and the Member States adequate time to make arrangements to be able to meet obligations concerning time limits and the availability of services required by this Regulation the application of Articles 8, 9 and 10 should be deferred until 1 January 2015.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on Excise Duty,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: