1.No later than 12 noon, Brussels time, on Wednesday each week, Member States shall communicate to the Commission the market prices or quotations referred to in Articles 17(1), 27(1) and 34(2) of this Regulation.
The prices or quotations shall relate to the period from Monday to Sunday preceding the week in which the information is communicated.
The prices or quotations reported shall be expressed in euro or, where applicable, in national currency.
2.The communications referred to in paragraph 1 shall be made by electronic means using the form made available to the Member States by the Commission.
1.The weighing coefficients referred to in Articles 18, 26(3) and 35 of this Regulation shall be revised periodically to take into account trends recorded at national and Community levels.
2.For each revision referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall communicate to the Member States the revised weighting coefficients.
1.The Community inspection committee referred to in Article 42(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, hereafter referred to as ‘the Committee’, shall be responsible for carrying out on-the-spot inspections covering:
(a)the application of the arrangements relating to the Community scales for the classification of beef and sheep carcases;
(b)the recording of market prices according to those classification scales;
(c)the classification, identification and marking of products within the framework of the buying-in under public intervention in the beef and veal sector provided for in Article 6(1)(e) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007.
2.The Committee shall be composed of at most:
(a)three Commission experts, one of whom shall act as chairman of the Committee;
(b)one expert from the Member State concerned;
(c)eight experts from other Member States.
The Member States shall appoint experts on the basis of their independence and ability, particularly in matters of classification of carcases and recording of market prices and of the specific nature of the work to be carried out.
Experts shall not under any circumstances use for personal purposes or divulge information obtained in connection with the work of the Committee.
3.Inspections shall be carried out at slaughterhouses, meat markets, intervention centres, price quotation centres and regional and central services engaged in the implementation of the provisions referred to in paragraph 1.
4.Inspections shall be carried out at regular intervals in Member States and their frequency may vary in particular according to the relative volume of beef and sheep production in the Member States visited or to problems linked to the application of the classification scales.
The programme of inspection visits shall be drawn up by the Commission after consulting the Member States. Representatives of the Member State visited may take part in the inspections.
Each Member State shall organise the visits which are to be carried out on its territory according to the requirements defined by the Commission. To that end, the Member State shall forward, 30 days before the visit, the detailed programme of the proposed inspection visits to the Commission, which may request any amendment to the programme.
The Commission shall inform Member States as far in advance as possible before each visit of the programme and conduct thereof.
5.On completion of each visit, the members of the Committee and the representatives of the Member State visited shall meet to consider the results. The members of the Committee shall then draw conclusions from the visit concerning the points referred to in paragraph 1.
The Committee chairman shall draw up a report on the inspections conducted and containing the conclusions referred to in the first subparagraph. The report shall be sent at the earliest possibility to the Member State inspected and to the other Member States subsequently.
When the report referred to in the second subparagraph notes shortcomings in the various fields of activity which were the subject of verification, or makes recommendations with a view to improving operations, the Member States shall inform the Commission of all changes which are envisaged or have taken place not later than three months after the date on which the report was transmitted.
6.Travel and subsistence expenses of members of the Committee shall be borne by the Commission in accordance with the rules applicable to the reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses of persons unconnected with the Commission who are called upon by it to act as experts.
1.Member States shall take all necessary measures:
(a)to ensure that the provisions of this Regulation are applied;
(b)to ensure the accuracy of the prices reported in accordance with Articles 17(1), 27(1) and 34(2) of this Regulation;
(c)to penalise any infringements such as, in particular, the falsification and fraudulent use of stamps and labels, or classification carried out by unlicensed personnel.
2.Member States shall inform the Commission of the measures referred to in paragraph 1 as soon as possible.
Regulations (EEC) No 563/82, (EEC) No 2967/85, (EEC) No 344/91, (EC) No 295/96, (EC) No 103/2006, (EC) No 1128/2006, (EC) No 908/2006, (EC) No 1319/2006, (EC) No 710/2008, (EC) No 22/2008 and Decision 83/471/EEC are repealed.
References to the repealed Regulations and Decision shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex VIII.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 January 2009.