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 Kazakhstans 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.