(1)

Regulation (EC) No 3223/94 lays down, pursuant to the outcome of the Uruguay Round multilateral trade negotiations, the criteria whereby the Commission fixes the standard values for imports from third countries, in respect of the products and periods stipulated in the Annex thereto.

(2)

In compliance with the above criteria, the standard import values must be fixed at the levels set out in the Annex to this Regulation,

(1)

Belgium has intervention stocks of white sugar. In order to respond to market needs, it is appropriate to make the stocks of white sugar accepted into intervention before 31 March 2005 by the Belgian intervention agency available on the internal market.

(2)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1262/2001 of 27 June 2001 laying down detailed rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/2001 as regards the buying in and sale of sugar by intervention agencies (2) should apply to such a sale. It is appropriate to derogate from that Regulation where necessary and to specify some specific rules of procedure.

(3)

To take account of the situation on the Community market, provision should be made for the Commission to fix a minimum selling price for each partial invitation to tender.

(4)

The Belgian intervention agency should communicate the tenders to the Commission. The tenderers should remain anonymous.

(5)

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

(1)

France has intervention stocks of white sugar. In order to respond to market needs, it is appropriate to make the stocks of white sugar accepted into intervention before 31 March 2005 by the French intervention agency available on the internal market.

(2)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1262/2001 of 27 June 2001 laying down detailed rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/2001 as regards the buying in and sale of sugar by intervention agencies (2) should apply to such a sale. It is appropriate to derogate from that Regulation where necessary and to specify some specific rules of procedure.

(3)

To take account of the situation on the Community market, provision should be made for the Commission to fix a minimum selling price for each partial invitation to tender.

(4)

The French intervention agency should communicate the tenders to the Commission. The tenderers should remain anonymous.

(5)

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

(1)

Sweden has intervention stocks of raw sugar. In order to respond to market needs, it is appropriate to make the stocks of raw sugar accepted into intervention before 31 March 2005 by the Swedish intervention agency available on the internal market.

(2)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1262/2001 of 27 June 2001 laying down detailed rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/2001 as regards the buying in and sale of sugar by intervention agencies (2) should apply to such a sale. It is appropriate to derogate from that Regulation where necessary and to specify some specific rules of procedure.

(3)

To take account of the situation on the Community market, provision should be made for the Commission to fix a minimum selling price for each partial invitation to tender.

(4)

The Swedish intervention agency should communicate the tenders to the Commission. The tenderers should remain anonymous.

(5)

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

(1)

The Commission Regulation (EC) No 3199/93 (2) provides that the denaturants which are employed in each Member State for the purposes of completely denaturing alcohol in accordance with Article 27(1)(a) of Directive 92/83/EEC are to be described in the Annex to that Regulation.

(2)

Pursuant to Article 27(1)(a) of Directive 92/83/EEC, Member States are required to exempt from excise duty alcohol which has been completely denatured in accordance with the requirements of any Member State, provided that such requirements have been duly notified and accepted in accordance with the conditions laid down in paragraphs 3 and 4 of that Article.

(3)

Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia have communicated the denaturants which they intend to employ.

(4)

The Commission transmitted the said communications to the other Member States on 1 May 2004.

(5)

Objections have been received to the requirements notified.

(6)

Regulation (EC) No 3199/93 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(7)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on Excise Duties,

(1)

Article 3(1)(d) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1535/2003 of 29 August 2003 laying down detailed rules for applying Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/96 as regards the aid scheme for products processed from fruit and vegetables (2) lays down the dates of the marketing year for prunes.

(2)

The products for which the minimum price and the aid are to be set are listed in Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 464/1999 of 3 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/96 as regards aid arrangements for prunes (3) and the characteristics that these products must possess are laid down in Article 2 of that Regulation.

(3)

The minimum price for dried plums and the production aid for prunes should therefore be set for the 2005/06 marketing year in accordance with the criteria laid down in Articles 6b and 6c respectively of Regulation (EC) No 2201/96.

(4)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Products Processed from Fruit and Vegetables,

(1)

Regulation (EC) No 936/97 provides in Articles 4 and 5 the conditions for applications and for the issue of import licences for meat referred to in Article 2(f).

(2)

Article 2(f) of Regulation (EC) No 936/97 fixes the amount of high-quality fresh, chilled or frozen beef and veal meeting the definition laid down therein which may be imported on special terms for the period 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006 at 11 500 t.

(3)

It should be recalled that licences issued pursuant to this Regulation will, throughout the period of validity, be open for use only in so far as provisions on health protection in force permit,

(1)

In accordance with Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1051/2001, a world market price for unginned cotton is to be determined periodically from the price for ginned cotton recorded on the world market and by reference to the historical relationship between the price recorded for ginned cotton and that calculated for unginned cotton. That historical relationship has been established in Article 2(2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1591/2001 of 2 August 2001 laying down detailed rules for applying the cotton aid scheme (3). Where the world market price cannot be determined in this way, it is to be based on the most recent price determined.

(2)

In accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1051/2001, the world market price for unginned cotton is to be determined in respect of a product of specific characteristics and by reference to the most favourable offers and quotations on the world market among those considered representative of the real market trend. To that end, an average is to be calculated of offers and quotations recorded on one or more European exchanges for a product delivered cif to a port in the Community and coming from the various supplier countries considered the most representative in terms of international trade. However, there is provision for adjusting the criteria for determining the world market price for ginned cotton to reflect differences justified by the quality of the product delivered and the offers and quotations concerned. Those adjustments are specified in Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1591/2001.

(3)

The application of the above criteria gives the world market price for unginned cotton determined hereinafter,

(1)

Directive 89/106/EEC envisages that in order to take account of different levels of protection for the construction works at national, regional or local levels, it may be necessary to establish in the interpretative documents classes corresponding to the performance of products in respect of each essential requirement. Those documents have been published as the ‘Communication of the Commission with regard to the interpretative documents of Directive 89/106/EEC (2)’.

(2)

With respect of the essential requirement of safety in the event of fire, interpretative document No 2 lists a number of interrelated measures which together define the fire safety strategy to be developed in different ways in the Member States.

(3)

Interpretative document No 2 identifies one of those measures as the limitation of the generation and spread of fire and smoke within a given area by limiting the potential of construction products to contribute to the full development of a fire.

(4)

The level of that limitation may be expressed only in terms of the different levels of reaction-to-fire performance of the products in their end-use application.

(5)

By way of harmonised solution, a system of classes was adopted in Commission Decision 2000/147/EC of 8 February 2000 implementing Council Directive 89/106/EEC as regard the classification of the reaction-to-fire performance of construction products (3).

(6)

In the case of certain construction products it is necessary to use the classification established in Decision 2000/147/EC.

(7)

The reaction-to-fire performance of many construction products and/or materials, within the classification provided for in Decision 2000/147/EC, is well established and sufficiently well known to fire regulators in Member States with the consequence that they do not require testing for this particular performance characteristic.

(8)

Products have been considered in relation to their end-use application, where relevant.

(9)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Construction,