(1)

Under the agreements concluded during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, the Community undertook, as from the 1995/96 marketing year, to open reduced-tariff quotas (hereinafter abatimento quotas) for imports into Spain of two million tonnes of maize and 300 000 tonnes of sorghum respectively and for imports into Portugal of 500 000 tonnes of maize. Detailed rules for the application of abatimento tariff quotas were laid down by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1839/95 of 26 July 1995 laying down detailed rules for the application of tariff quotas for imports of maize and sorghum into Spain and imports of maize into Portugal (2).

(2)

To ensure the proper application of these quotas, the quantities of maize and of sorghum imported into Spain and Portugal are booked by the Commission on an annual basis taking account of all imports actually carried out, including imports of certain cereal substitute products which are deducted in proportion to the total quantities to be imported into Spain.

(3)

In the case of maize imports, the import period for Portugal corresponds at present to the marketing year while it corresponds to the calendar year in the case of Spain. To ensure the sound management of the abatimento quotas, identical import and accounting periods should be fixed for those two countries, i.e. the calendar year. However, in order to avoid any overlap between the new and old accounting periods, a specific quota should be opened for Portugal for the second half of 2007. This Regulation must therefore apply from 1 July 2007.

(4)

To ensure that the Community’s international commitments are met, an additional period should also be provided for, running beyond the calendar year, so enabling these commitments for each reference calendar year to be met. The length of this additional period must be the same for Spain and Portugal.

(5)

Changes were made to the customs nomenclature in 2002 as regards certain substitute products to be booked against the abatimento quotas in Spain. CN codes 2308 90 30 (citrus pulp residues) and 2308 10 00 were merged. The products concerned now fall within CN code 2308 00 40. The list of products to be booked within the framework of abatimento quotas should therefore be adapted accordingly.

(6)

Moreover, since the introduction of these quota arrangements, certain specific trade concessions for maize have been granted by the Community within the framework of both preferential and non-preferential arrangements. These new concessions apply independently of the abatimento quotas. They presently comprise the concessions granted by Council Regulation (EC) No 2007/2000 of 18 September 2000 introducing exceptional trade measures for countries and territories participating in or linked to the European Union’s Stabilisation and Association process, amending Regualtion (EC) No 2820/98 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 1763/1999 and (EC) No 2/2000 (3), by the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Croatia, of the other part (4), approved by Council and Commission Decision 2005/40/EC, Euratom (5), by the Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters between the European Community, of the one part, and the Republic of Albania, of the other part (6), approved by Council Decision 2006/580/EC (7), and by Commission Regulation (EC) No 969/2006 of 29 June 2006 opening and providing for the administration of a Community tariff quota for imports of maize from third countries (8).

(7)

Accordingly, in order to ensure the sound management of the arrangements introduced by Regulation (EC) No 1839/95, while continuing to observe the Community’s international obligations, the imports to be booked as abatimento quotas should be clearly specified.

(8)

The current provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1839/95 provide for the extension of the period for booking imports into Spain to the end of February each year, but do not lay down any rules for Portugal. This situation is unsatisfactory as it creates uncertainty in the application of the arrangements. In order to remove this uncertainty and to ensure the sound management of the abatimento quotas, provision should be made for similar methods for booking imports of maize and sorghum effected in Spain and in Portugal.

(9)

In order to attain this objective and to guarantee effective monitoring by the Commission of the arrangements and of the Community’s international obligations, provision should be made for Spain and Portugal to communicate to the Commission, each month, all imports of the products concerned actually carried out, specifying the calculation method applied.

(10)

Regulation (EC) No 1839/95 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(11)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Cereals,

1.

Article 1(2) is replaced by the following:

2.

Article 2 is amended as follows:

3.

the following Article 2a is inserted:

4.

The Annex to this Regulation shall be added as Annex III.