(1)

Under Commission Regulation (EC) No 127/2009 of 12 February 2009 laying down the procedures and conditions for the sale of cereals held by paying agencies or intervention agencies (2), cereals held by intervention agencies are to be sold by tendering procedure at prices preventing market disturbance.

(2)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 712/2007 (3) opened standing invitations to tender for the resale on the Community market of cereals held by Member States' intervention agencies for the 2007/08 marketing year. In order to provide producers and the feed industry with supplies at competitive prices during the first months of the 2008/09 marketing year, that Regulation has been amended so as to ensure that submissions for partial tenders can be submitted until 17 December 2008.

(3)

At the start of the 2007/08 marketing year, Community intervention stocks stood at 2.46 million tonnes, 2.23 million tonnes of which were maize. During that marketing year, relatively significant sales of intervention stocks, specifically maize, took place under the tendering procedure covered by Regulation (EC) No 712/2007.

(4)

However, given the market conditions since mid-September 2008, particularly in terms of price, bids have ceased to be made by operators and on 31 October 2008, only one amount of intervention maize of approximately 16 000 tonnes remained. These old stocks (chiefly from the 2004 and 2005 harvests) will be competing with Community maize from the abundant 2008 harvest, the selling prices of which were already below the intervention price on 31 October 2008. This stock should therefore be made available with a view to its use on the internal market.

(5)

Under Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 127/2009, if the running of the common market organisation is disturbed on account in particular of difficulty during a marketing year in selling cereals at prices which comply with those given in Article 7(1) of that Regulation, sales on the Community market may be organised on the basis of specific invitations to tender under special conditions. The lengthy duration of storage of maize, from harvests prior to the 2007/08 marketing year’s harvest, held by the Hungarian intervention agency and the current market price of maize in Hungary constitute a special circumstance justifying the opening of a specific invitation to tender for the sale of maize from harvests prior to that of the 2007/08 marketing year at prices potentially lower than the intervention price.

(6)

Significant price fluctuations have also been observed on the Community market. In view of these disparities, the lots awarded could not be removed by the operators to which awards are made. The security of EUR 5 per tonne provided for in the second subparagraph of Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 127/2009 is not therefore sufficient to ensure this removal. In order to avoid such a situation and to ensure that the tendering procedure covered by this Regulation runs smoothly, the security should be increased in order to limit the risks.

(7)

To take account of the situation on the Community market, provision should be made for the Commission to manage this invitation to tender. Provision must also be made for an award coefficient for tenders offering the minimum selling price.

(8)

In the interests of sound management of the system, the information required by the Commission should be sent by electronic means. It is important that the notification to the Commission by the intervention agency maintains tenderers' anonymity.

(9)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,