(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2584/2000 of 24 November 2000 establishing a system for the communication of information on certain supplies of beef, veal and pigmeat to the territory of the Russian Federation (2) has been substantially amended (3). In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Regulation should be codified.

(2)

Article 2 of Protocol 2 on mutual administrative assistance for the correct application of customs legislation annexed to the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation establishing a partnership between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Russian Federation, of the other part (4), provides that the parties are to assist each other in ensuring that customs legislation is correctly applied, in particular by the prevention, detection and investigation of contraventions of that legislation. To implement that administrative assistance, the Commission, represented by the European Anti-Fraud Office (hereinafter referred to as ‘OLAF’) and the Russian authorities have concluded an arrangement establishing a mechanism for the communication of information on movements of goods between the Community and the Russian Federation.

(3)

As part of that administrative assistance, specifically in relation to the transport of beef, veal and pigmeat products bound for the Russian Federation, the information which operators must forward to the competent authorities of the Member States and the system for communicating that information between the competent authorities of the Member States, OLAF and the Russian authorities should be laid down.

(4)

That information and the system of communication introduced should make it possible to trace exports of the products concerned to the Russian Federation and, where appropriate, detect cases in which a refund is not due and must be recovered.

(5)

Application of the provisions of this Regulation will be evaluated after a significant period of operation. The review carried out on that basis may, where appropriate, lead to their extension to exports of other products and involve financial consequences where obligations are or are not met.

(6)

Article 16(4) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 800/1999 of 15 April 1999 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of export refunds on agricultural products (5), specifies that the Commission may provide in certain specific cases for proof of import to be furnished by specific documents or in some other way. Consequently, for the exports provided for by this Regulation, the information from the Russian authorities should be considered a new source of proof supplementing the existing sources of proof.

(7)

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

(a)

the export declaration number, the customs office of export and the date on which the export customs formalities were completed;

(b)

a description of the goods, indicating the eight-figure product code of the combined nomenclature;

(c)

the net quantity in kilograms;

(d)

the TIR carnet number or the reference number of the Russian DKD internal transit document, or the number of the TD1/IM40 declaration of release for home use in Russia;

(e)

the container number, if applicable;

(f)

the identification number and/or the name of the means of transport at the time of entry of the consignment in Russia;

(g)

the licence number of the warehouse under customs supervision to which the product was delivered in Russia;

(h)

the date of delivery of the product to the warehouse under customs supervision in Russia.