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 Article 187(a) and (c) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
By Council Decision No 2014/668/EU, the Council authorised the signature, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application of the Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Ukraine, on the other. Title IV of the Agreement provides, in particular, for the reduction or removal of customs duties on goods from Ukraine in accordance with Annex I-A to the Agreement. Annex I-A to the Agreement provides, in particular, for the opening of tariff quotas for imports of certain cereals into the EU. Title IV of and Annex I-A to the Agreement shall apply provisionally from 1 January 2016.
(2)
Consequently, tariff quotas for imports of cereals should be opened as from 2016. In addition, the Commission should administer some of these tariff quotas according to the method referred to in Article 184(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.
(3)
To ensure that imports of cereals originating in Ukraine within these tariff quotas are orderly and not speculative, they should be made subject to the issue of import licences. Therefore Commission Regulations (EC) No 1301/2006, (EC) No 1342/2003 and (EC) No 376/2008 should apply, without prejudice to any derogations provided for by this Regulation.
(4)
To ensure the proper management of these quotas, deadlines for the submission of import licence applications should be laid down and the information to be included in applications and licences should be specified.
(5)
In the interests of efficient administration, when notifying the Commission, Member States should use the information systems provided for in Commission Regulation (EC) No 792/2009.
(6)
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1006/2011 replaced the CN codes of the cereals referred to in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 with new codes that differ from the codes referred to in the Association Agreement. The Annex to this Regulation should therefore refer to the new CN codes.
(7)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: