PURPOSE: codification of Council Regulation (EC) No 1340/2008 on trade in certain steel products between the European Community and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKROUND: Council Regulation (EC) No 1340/20086 has been substantially amended several times. It is recalled that on 1 April 1987, the Commission decided to instruct its staff that all acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement. The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edinburgh European Council (December 1992) confirmed this requirement, stressing the importance of codification.

The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission have agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure may be used for the fast-track adoption of codification instruments.

CONTENT: in the interests of clarity and rationality, the purpose of this proposal is to undertake a codification of Council Regulation (EC) No 1340/2008 of 8 December 2008 on trade in certain steel products between the European Community and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The new proposed Regulation will supersede the various acts incorporated in it ; it fully preserves the content of the acts being codified and hence does no more than bring them together with only such formal amendments as are required by the codification exercise itself.

The Agreement between the European Community and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on trade in certain steel products9 concluded on 19 July 2005 expired on 31 December 2006.

Pending the signature and entry into force of a new agreement or Kazakhstan’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), quantitative limits starting in 2007 were laid down by three Council Regulations.

The new proposed Regulation seeks to provide the means to administer this regime within the Union in such a way as to facilitate the implementation of the new agreement by envisaging as much as possible similar provisions.

This Regulation shall apply to imports into the Union of steel products listed in Annex I originating in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The importation into the Union of the steel products listed in Annex I originating in the Republic of Kazakhstan shall be subject to the quantitative limits . The release for free circulation of the products shall be subject to the presentation of a certificate of origin and of an import licence issued by the Member States’ authorities.

In order to ensure that quantities for which import licences are issued do not exceed at any moment the total quantitative limits, the proposal stipulates that the competent authorities shall issue import licences only upon confirmation by the Commission that there are still quantities available within the quantitative limits in question.

Products placed in a free zone or imported under the arrangements governing customs warehouses, temporary importation or inward processing (suspension system) should not be counted against the quantitative limits established for the products in question.

An export licence , to be issued by the competent authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan, shall be required in respect of any consignment of steel products subject to the quantitative limits, up to the level of the said limits.

DELEGATED ACTS: in order to permit the effective administration of certain restrictions, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amendments to Annex V to this Regulation.