In 2008 an Agreement has been concluded in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and the Arab Republic of Egypt concerning reciprocal liberalisation measures on agricultural products, processed agricultural products and fish and fishery products, the replacement of Protocols 1 and 2 and their annexes and amendments to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part, hereinafter ‘the Agreement’, which has been approved by Council Decision 2010/240/EC.

The Agreement provides for new tariff quotas for agricultural and processed agricultural products originating in Egypt. It provides also for changes to existing tariff quotas for those products which are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 747/2001, Commission Regulation (EC) No 2276/2003 of 22 December 2003 opening tariff quotas and laying down the duties applicable within these tariff quotas for imports into the European Community of certain processed agricultural products originating in Egypt, Commission Regulation (EC) No 955/2005 of 23 June 2005 opening a Community import quota for rice originating in Egypt, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1002/2007 of 29 August 2007 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 2184/96 concerning imports into the Community of rice originating in and coming from Egypt and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1455/2007 of 10 December 2007 opening certain Community import quotas for rice originating in Egypt.

It is necessary to implement the new tariff quotas and the changes to the existing tariff quotas provided for in the Agreement. For reasons of clarity, it is appropriate to bring together all tariff quotas for agricultural and processed agricultural products originating in Egypt in one single legislative act.

Regulation (EC) No 747/2001 should therefore be amended accordingly and Regulations (EC) No 2276/2003, (EC) No 955/2005, (EC) No 1002/2007 and (EC) No 1455/2007 should therefore be repealed.

Import licences issued under Regulation (EC) No 955/2005 and Regulation (EC) No 1002/2007 are valid from their date of issue until the end of the following month. Where the validity period of import licences issued under those Regulations before the entry into force of this Regulation expires after the date of repeal of those Regulations, importers could not comply with their obligations related to import licences. Member States should therefore be permitted in such cases to derogate from Commission Regulation (EC) No 376/2008 of 23 April 2008 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of import and export licences and advance fixing certificates for agricultural products, and to release the security lodged by importers. In the interest of clarity it should also be provided that import licences issued after the entry into force of this Regulation under Regulation (EC) No 955/2005 and Regulation (EC) No 1002/2007 are to be valid only until the date of repeal of those Regulations.

For the purpose of calculating the tariff quotas for the first year of application, it should be provided, in accordance with the Agreement, that the volumes of the tariff quotas for which the quota period starts before the date of entry into force of the Agreement, should be reduced by a proportion relating to that part of the period which has elapsed before that date.

Since the Agreement enters into force on 1 June 2010, this Regulation should apply from that date. However, in the interest of legal certainty, provisions concerning the validity of licences issued before that date should apply immediately.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,