(1)

Article 1(2) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 (2) defines ‘invitation to tender’ and the related award conditions. In order to avoid any ambiguity as regards the award of the contract, it is necessary to clarify those conditions.

(2)

Under the third subparagraph of Article 2(1) and the third subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93, a period of at least eight days must elapse between the date of publication in the Official Journal of the European Union of decisions opening invitations to tender for sale on the Community market or for export and the first closing date for the submission of tenders. The first paragraph of Article 12 of that Regulation provides for the same period between the publication of the notice of invitation to tender and the first closing date for submission of tenders. These time limits now appear too long, in view of the progress made in communications and information provision by electronic means, and should therefore be reduced.

(3)

Article 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 specifies minimum rules for publicising notices of invitations to tender and lays down certain general rules applicable to standing invitations to tender, irrespective of the destination of the products. For the sake of clarity, those rules should appear in Title III of that Regulation setting out general and final provisions.

(4)

Article 10 of Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 specifies the information to be sent to the Commission following the submission of tenders, and the terms for accepting the tenders, in particular as regards price. For the sake of effective management, the lot to which the tender relates should be identified, and the circumstances in which the fixing of the minimum selling price should not prejudice other export operations should be specified.

(5)

Article 12 of Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 lays down general provisions on the notice of invitation to tender. For the sake of clarity, the provisions deleted from Article 3 should appear in this Article.

(6)

Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(7)

Regulation (EEC) No 2131/93 contains entries in all Community languages. Under Council Regulation No 1 of 6 October 1958 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community (3), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 920/2005 (4), Irish has been one of the official languages of the Community since 1 January 2007. The above entries should therefore include the Irish language version.

(8)

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.

The third subparagraph of Article 2(1) is replaced by the following:

‘There must be a gap of at least six days between publication and the first closing date for submission of tenders.’;

3.

Article 3 is replaced by the following:

4.

The third subparagraph of Article 7(1) is replaced by the following:

‘There must be a gap of at least six days between publication and the first closing date for submission of tenders.’;

5.

Article 10 is replaced by the following:

6.

Article 12 is replaced by the following:

7.

In the Annex, after the entry in French, the following indent is inserted:

‘—   in Irish: Onnmhairiú gránach ar muir, Airteagal 17a de Rialachán (CEE) 2131/93’.