THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007, and in particular points (a), (c) and (d) of Article 187 thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
By Council Decision 2014/668/EU, the Council authorised the signing, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application, of the Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Ukraine, of the other part (‘the Agreement’). The Agreement provides for the elimination of customs duties on imports of goods originating in Ukraine in accordance with its Annex I-A to Chapter I. The Appendix to that Annex I-A provides for import tariff quotas for pigmeat.
(2)
Pending the entry into force of the Agreement, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 374/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council, import tariff quotas for pigmeat for 2014 and 2015 were opened and managed in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 414/2014.
(3)
The Agreement will be provisionally applied as of 1 January 2016. It is therefore necessary to open annual import tariff quota periods from 1 January 2016 onwards. In order to give due weight to the supply requirements of the existing and emerging production, processing and consumption market in the Union pigmeat sector in terms of competitiveness, certainty and continuity of supply and the need to safeguard the equilibrium of that market, it is appropriate that those quotas are administered by the Commission in accordance with Article 184(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.
(4)
Article 6(3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1301/2006 provides that the Commission Regulations governing a given import tariff quota may provide for the application of a system according to which the quotas are managed by attributing import rights as a first step and issuing import licences as a second. Such a system would allow operators that have obtained import rights to decide during the quota period and based upon their actual trade flows, at what moment they wish to apply for import licences.
(5)
Commission Regulation (EC) No 376/2008 lays down common detailed rules for the application of the system of import and export licences and advance fixing certificates for agricultural products. That Regulation should apply to import licences issued under this Regulation, save where derogations are appropriate.
(6)
Furthermore, the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1301/2006 which concern applications for import rights, the status of applicants and the issue of import licences, should apply to import licences issued pursuant to this Regulation, without prejudice to additional conditions laid down in this Regulation.
(7)
For appropriate administration of the tariff quotas, a security should be lodged at the time of submission of an import rights application and at the time of issue of an import licence.
(8)
Operators should be obliged to apply for import licences for all the import rights allocated, respecting the obligation referred to in Article 23(1) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014.
(9)
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1001/2013 has replaced some CN codes in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 by new CN codes which now differ from those referred to in the Appendix to Annex I-A to Chapter I of the Agreement. The new CN codes should therefore be reflected in Annex I to this Regulation.
(10)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: