Article 4(5) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 determines the first period for submission of applications for import licences. For the delivery period which runs between 1 July 2009 and 30 September 2009, sufficient time should be given to operators to organise the trade. Therefore the first period for submission of applications for import licence applications should start immediately after the publication of the delivery obligations for that period.

Protocol 3 on ACP sugar and the Agreement with India will no longer bind the Community after 30 September 2009. Therefore, import licence requests should be lodged at the latest on 18 September 2009. Article 4(5) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 should be amended accordingly.

In the case where licence applications reach or exceed the quantity of one of the delivery obligations, Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 provides for the fixing of an allocation coefficient by the Commission. Since Protocol 3 on ACP sugar and the Agreement with India will no longer bind the Community after 30 September 2009, the flexibility provided for the issuing of import licences for ACP/India sugar should not apply for the last two delivery periods. The communication of actually imported quantities foreseen in Article 8(a) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 is used to calculate the transfer of eventual excess quantities to the following delivery period. The delay for this communication is three months and therefore the information necessary for the calculation will not be available. Therefore, in the case where licence applications reach or exceed the quantity of one of the delivery obligations for the delivery period 2008/2009 and the delivery period which runs between 1 July 2009 and 30 September 2009, an allocation coefficient needs to be fixed.

Import licence applications and licences require the indication of the delivery period in their box 20. For reasons of clarity, a specific mention should be given for the delivery period which runs between 1 July 2009 and 30 September 2009.

The non-reciprocal trade preferences contained in Annex V to the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 expired on 31 December 2007. Therefore the proof of origin issued in accordance with Article 14 of Protocol 1 attached to Annex V to the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement no longer applies to countries which are not included in Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007. However, the preference granted under Protocol 3 on ACP sugar continues to apply until 30 September 2009. Therefore, at the moment of lodging of import licence applications for ACP/India sugar, an accompanying document issued by the competent authority of the exporting country should be submitted. As it has been so far, the exporting countries should still be able to issue a document that differs from the export licence referred to in Articles 16(2) and 21(2)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006. Provision should, therefore, be made for the possibility of the issuing of such an alternative document based on the same model as the proof of origin issued in the past.

Article 16(3) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 determines the validity of the import licences for ACP/India sugar. With regard to the delivery period beginning on 1 July 2009, the date as from which the import licences for refining will have a validity of three months should be moved to 1 July 2009 in order to reflect the fact that this delivery period 2008/2009 will end on 30 September 2009.

The experience gained in the first two years of the out-of-quota production management, and in particular the industrial sugar, shows a need for flexibility both for producers and the processors of industrial sugar. The criteria set out in Article 30(2) of Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 for the purposes of determining the quantity of industrial sugar for which application of all or part of the import duties is to be suspended are therefore no longer needed and should be deleted.

Given that imported industrial sugar may only be used for the purposes of production of the products referred to in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 967/2006, the provisions on the management of the industrial raw material and the obligations on processors laid down by that Regulation should apply to the quantities imported.

In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007, the additional tariff rate quotas available under that provision have to be divided between regions according to quantities to be determined in conformity with the agreements qualifying regions or states for inclusion in Annex I to that Regulation. The initialling of such agreements between certain regions and states, of the one part, and the European Community, of the other part, qualified these regions and states for inclusion in the said Annex I. The quantities of the additional tariff rate quotas are determined in these agreements.

Those additional tariff rate quotas should be opened and administered in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 950/2006. It is therefore appropriate to assign quantities to countries, or regions, subject to the precondition that those countries are listed in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007. Such quantities may be assigned to specific countries in their own right and also as part of a region. Certain specificities concerning the information that should be contained in the licence applications and the licences themselves should be laid down.

Export licences for non-preferential exports have been used to apply for preferential import licences. Therefore, the export licence referred to in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 should clearly state that the licence relates to exports of preferential sugar to the EU.

Regulation (EC) No 950/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Sugar,