(1)

Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 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)

Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 provides that the difference between prices on the world market for the products listed in Article 1(1)(b) of that Regulation and prices for those products on the Community market may be covered by an export refund.

(2)

Given the present situation on the sugar market, export refunds should therefore be fixed in accordance with the rules and certain criteria provided for in Articles 32 and 33 of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.

(3)

The first subparagraph of Article 33(2) of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 provides that the world market situation or the specific requirements of certain markets may make it necessary to vary the refund according to destination.

(4)

Refunds should be granted only on products that are allowed to move freely in the Community and that comply with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.

(5)

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

(1)

Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 provides that the difference between prices on the world market for the products listed in Article 1(1)(c), (d) and (g) of that Regulation and prices for those products on the Community market may be covered by an export refund.

(2)

Given the present situation on the sugar market, export refunds should therefore be fixed in accordance with the rules and certain criteria provided for in Articles 32 and 33 of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.

(3)

The first subparagraph of Article 33(2) of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 provides that the world market situation or the specific requirements of certain markets may make it necessary to vary the refund according to destination.

(4)

Refunds should be granted only on products that are allowed to move freely in the Community and that comply with the requirements of Commission Regulation (EC) No 951/2006 of 30 June 2006 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 as regards trade with third countries in the sugar sector (2).

(5)

Export refunds may be set to cover the competitive gap between Community and third country's exports. Community exports to certain close destinations and to third countries granting Community products a preferential import treatment are currently in a particular favourable competitive position. Therefore, refunds for exports to those destinations should be abolished.

(6)

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

(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 900/2007 of 27 July 2007 on a standing invitation to tender to determine refunds on exports of white sugar for the 2007/08 marketing year (2) requires the issuing of partial invitations to tender.

(2)

Pursuant to Article 8(1) of Regulation (EC) No 900/2007 and following an examination of the tenders submitted in response to the partial invitation to tender ending on 27 March 2008, it is appropriate to fix a maximum export refund for that partial invitation to tender.

(3)

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

(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1060/2007 of 14 September 2007 opening a standing invitation to tender for the resale for export of sugar held by the intervention agencies of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden (2) requires the issuing of partial invitations to tender.

(2)

Pursuant to Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2007 and following an examination of the tenders submitted in response to the partial invitation to tender ending on 26 March 2008, it is appropriate to fix a maximum export refund for that partial invitation to tender.

(3)

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

(1)

Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste (2) promotes the recovery and incineration at waste incineration plants with energy recovery and recycling of packaging waste.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 sets out the general principles for eliminating the differences between the laws of Member States as regards materials and articles in contact with food and provides in Article 5(1) for the adoption of specific measures for groups of materials and articles. That Regulation identifies that harmonisation of rules on recycled plastic materials and articles should be given priority.

(3)

Commission Directive 2002/72/EC of 6 August 2002 relating to plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs (3) sets out rules for plastic materials and articles which are intended to come into contact with foodstuffs.

(4)

Plastic packaging waste may contain residues from previous use, contaminants from misuse and contaminants from non-authorised substances. Therefore it is necessary to lay down special requirements to ensure that materials and articles produced from recycled plastics and intended for food contact respect the requirements of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

(5)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 of 22 December 2006 on good manufacturing practice for materials and articles intended to come into contact with food (4) lays down rules on good manufacturing practice for groups of materials and articles intended to come into contact with food listed in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 and combinations of those materials and articles or recycled materials and articles used in those materials and articles.

(6)

Plastic waste can be treated mechanically to produce recycled materials and articles or it can be broken down to monomers and oligomers by chemical depolymerisation. Monomers and oligomers resulting from chemical depolymerisation should not be treated differently from monomers manufactured by chemical synthesis. Therefore, they are covered by the authorisation of monomers and additives in Directive 2002/72/EC and they should comply with the specifications and purity criteria established therein. Therefore, they should not be covered by this Regulation.

(7)

Offcuts and scraps from the production of plastic food contact materials, that has not been in contact with food or otherwise contaminated and is re-melted on the premises into new products or sold to a third party as part of a quality control system in compliance with the rules for good manufacturing practice laid down in Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 would be considered as suitable for food contact applications and should not fall under the scope of this Regulation. All other offcuts and scraps from the production of plastic food contact materials should fall within the scope of the present Regulation.

(8)

Recycled plastic used behind a plastic functional barrier as defined by Directive 2002/72/EC should not be covered by the authorisation procedure in this Regulation. The rules set out in Directive 2002/72/EC for substances used behind a plastic functional barrier are regarded as sufficient to ensure the safety also of recycled plastics used behind a functional barrier.

(9)

Directive 2002/72/EC lays down lists of substances authorised to be used in the manufacture of plastic food contact materials or articles. These substances have been evaluated for their safety and migration limits have been set for their safe use. To ensure the same level of safety of recycled plastic materials and articles only authorised monomers and additives should be added to the recycled plastics and their migration limits should also be respected by recycled plastic food contact materials.

(10)

Directive 2002/72/EC provides for a declaration of compliance and record keeping to ensure that relevant information on the safe use of the plastic material is passed on between business operators and to the competent authorities. Those general rules are also valid for recycled plastics; therefore, they should apply also to recycled plastic food contact materials and articles.

(11)

Only the combination of characteristic of the input, sorting efficiency, and the effectiveness of the process to reduce contamination together with the defined use of recycled plastic ensure the safety of the recycled plastic material and article. They are specific to the type of plastic and the recycling process applied. It is only feasible to evaluate all these aspects together in individual evaluations of the recycling processes followed by individual authorisations.

(12)

The safety of the recycled plastics can only be ensured if the recycling process is able to produce a reproducible quality of the recycled plastics. This can be controlled if an effective quality assurance system is applied. Therefore, only recycled plastics from a recycling process managed by an effective quality assurance system should be placed on the market.

(13)

Directive 2002/72/EC lays down the list of monomers and starting substance authorised to the exclusion of all others (positive list) to be used in the manufacture of plastic food contact materials or articles and, therefore, only materials and articles complying with the provisions laid down in Directive 2002/72/EC should be used as input for the recycling process. This can be achieved by sorting the plastic articles before recycling. For certain materials, such as polyolefines, due to their physico-chemical properties, 100 % sorting efficiency may be necessary to ensure recycled plastic that complies with the requirements of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. This sorting efficiency can be achieved in product loops which are in a closed and controlled chain. For other materials, for example, PET the safety of the recycled plastic can be ensured with a lower sorting efficiency as regards to its former use in food contact which is realistically achievable from kerbside collection systems. The sorting efficiency necessary for each material should be identified on a case by case basis.

(14)

Plastic waste may be contaminated by substances from the previous use or incidental misuse of the plastics or by substances originating from non-food contact grade plastic. As it is not possible to know all possible types of contamination and as different types of plastics have different capacities to retain and release contaminants it is not possible to set defined characteristics for the final product applicable to all types of recycled plastics. Therefore a combination of input characterisation together with an adequate process to remove possible contamination is necessary to control the safety of the final product.

(15)

In the mechanical treatment, in which the plastic waste is ground into small pieces and cleaned, special care has to be taken to remove these contaminations. The recycling process must demonstrate that it can efficiently reduce potential contamination to a level that does not pose a risk to human health. The contaminants should only migrate in levels comparable to or well below levels demonstrated in the challenge tests of that recycling process or in other appropriate analytical test and should comply with the requirements of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. A safety assessment should verify that the recycling process fulfils these conditions. Alternatively, for non-fillable materials and articles, such as crates and pallets that are handled in product loops in a closed and controlled chain in which all steps of manufacture, distribution and use are controlled, it may be sufficient to prove that contamination can be excluded when they are only used in contact with dry food such as fruits and vegetables.

(16)

Certain types of plastic materials and articles manufactured with recycled plastics may only be suitable for contact with specified types of food under certain conditions. A safety assessment should identify these materials and articles and appropriate contact conditions.

(17)

Differences between national laws, regulations and administrative provisions concerning the safety assessment and the authorisation of recycling processes, used in the manufacture of materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, may hinder the free movement of these materials and articles, creating conditions of unequal and unfair competition. An authorisation procedure should therefore be established at Community level on the basis of the authorisation procedure provided for in Articles 9 to 12 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

(18)

The authorisation procedure provided for in Article 9 to 12 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 is intended for the authorisation of substances. Changes to that procedure should be introduced in the present Regulation to adapt the authorisation procedure to the authorisation of recycling processes. These changes are specific procedural rules as referred to in Article 5(1)(n) of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

(19)

A safety assessment of the recycling process should be carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (‘the Authority’). In order to inform the applicant of the data to be provided for the safety assessment, the Authority should publish detailed guidance concerning the preparation and the submission of the application.

(20)

The safety assessment of the recycling process should be followed by a risk management decision as to whether this recycling process should be authorised. That decision should be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure described in Article 23(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 so as to ensure close cooperation between the Commission and the Member States.

(21)

The recycling process is company specific as regards technology and process parameters used. Therefore, only process specific authorisations should be granted. The authorisation procedure provided for in Articles 9 to 12 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 should be adapted accordingly.

(22)

It should be possible to apply the process in different production sites as long as technology and process parameters as described in the application and authorisation are adhered to.

(23)

The public should be informed on the authorised recycling processes. For that purpose, a Community register, as referred to in Article 5(1)(m) of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, of recycling processes authorised under this Regulation should be established including the description of the field of application for the recycled plastic of the authorised process.

(24)

The recycling and the converting plant should be subject to inspection and control by the Member State. Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (5) also covers official control on food contact materials. The most efficient way to control if the recycling process is applied as specified in the authorisation and to control if an effective quality assurance system is in place is the auditing of the recycling plant by the competent authorities. Therefore official controls performed to ensure compliance with this Regulation should include audits as specified in Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004. The audits should be made in the most cost effective manner possible to keep to a minimum the administrative and economic burden to competent authorities and small and medium enterprises.

(25)

To ensure an efficient control Member States and the Commission should be informed about the recycling or manufacturing sites in which the authorised recycling process is being applied.

(26)

Industry should be enabled to label that their packaging contains recycled plastics. However, consumers should not be misled by labelling as regards recycled content. Rules for labelling of recycled plastics in relation to the content of recycled plastics have been laid down in EN ISO 14021. To ensure adequate information of the consumer when recycled plastics are labelled, they should follow transparent rules as those laid down in EN ISO 14021 or equivalent.

(27)

Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 requires a declaration of compliance for materials and articles. The converter of recycled plastic material and articles should declare that he is using only recycled plastic from an authorised process and that the final product respects Community and national provisions applicable to it, in particular Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 and Directive 2002/72/EC. The recycler should provide the converter with the information that the recycled plastic is produced by an authorised process and specify its field of application. Therefore, both the finished recycled plastic materials and articles and the recycled plastic should be accompanied by a declaration of compliance. General information to be provided in the declaration is already laid down in Directive 2002/72/EC. Therefore, this Regulation should only specify the additional information in relation to the content of recycled plastics in the recycled plastic materials and articles.

(28)

Since recycled materials and articles are already on the market in the Member States, provision should be made to ensure that the transition to a Community authorisation procedure is smooth and does not disturb the existing recycled plastic materials and articles market. Sufficient time should be allowed for applicants to make available to the Authority the information necessary for the safety assessment of the recycled plastic used in such products. Therefore, a certain time period, (the ‘initial authorisation phase’), should be fixed during which time the information for existing recycling processes should be submitted by the applicants to the Authority. Applications for authorisations of new recycling processes may also be submitted during the initial authorisation phase. The Authority should evaluate without delay all applications for existing, as well as new recycling processes for which sufficient information has been submitted during the initial authorisation phase.

(29)

Specific requirements need to be set on the quality assurance system applied in recycling processes. As the quality assurance is part of the good manufacturing practice which is covered by Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 the specific requirements on the quality assurance system should be included in the Annex to that Regulation.

(30)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,

(a)

the quality of plastic input must be characterised and controlled in accordance with pre-established criteria that ensure compliance of the final recycled plastic material and article with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004;

(b)

the plastic input must originate from plastic materials and articles that have been manufactured in accordance with Community legislation on plastic food contact materials and articles, in particular Council Directive 78/142/EEC of 30 January 1978 on the approximation of laws of the Member States relating to materials and articles which contain vinyl chloride monomer and are intended to come into contact with foodstuffs (6) and Directive 2002/72/EC;

(c)

(d)

the quality of the recycled plastic must be characterised and controlled in accordance with pre-established criteria that ensure compliance of the final recycled plastic material and article with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004;

(e)

there must be established conditions of use of the recycled plastic whereby it can be ensured that the recycled plastic materials and articles comply with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

(1)

As a result of the United States’ failure to bring the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA) in compliance with its obligations under the WTO agreements, Regulation (EC) No 673/2005 imposed a 15 % ad valorem additional customs duty on imports of certain products originating in the United States of America as from 1 May 2005. In conformity with the WTO authorisation to suspend the application of concessions to the United States, the Commission shall adjust the level of suspension annually to the level of nullification or impairment caused by the CDSOA to the Community at that time.

(2)

The CDSOA disbursements for the most recent year for which data are available relate to the distribution of anti-dumping and countervailing duties collected during the Fiscal Year 2007 (1 October 2006 to 30 September 2007). On the basis of the data published by the United States’ Customs and Border Protection, the level of nullification or impairment caused to the Community is calculated at USD 33,38 million.

(3)

Since the level of nullification or impairment and consequently of suspension has decreased, the last 30 products of the list in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 673/2005 should be removed from the list in Annex I to that Regulation.

(4)

The effect of a 15 % ad valorem additional import duty on imports from the United States of the products in the amended Annex I represents, over one year, a value of trade that does not exceed USD 33,38 million.

(5)

To make sure that there are no delays in the customs clearance of goods removed from the scope of the 15 % ad valorem additional import duty, this Regulation should enter into force on the day of its publication.

(6)

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

(1)

In accordance with the first subparagraph of Article 6(2) and pursuant to Article 17(2) of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006, France’s application to register the name ‘Lingot du Nord’ and Italy’s applications to register the names ‘Cipolla Rossa di Tropea Calabria’ and ‘Marrone di Roccadaspide’ were published in the Official Journal of the European Union (2).

(2)

As no objection under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 has been received by the Commission, these names should be entered in the Register,

(1)

Article 32(1) and (2) of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 provides that the differences between the prices in international trade for the products listed in Article 1(1)(b), (c), (d) and (g) of that Regulation and prices within the Community may be covered by an export refund where these products are exported in the form of goods listed in Annex VII to that Regulation.

(2)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1043/2005 of 30 June 2005 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 3448/93 as regards the system of granting export refunds on certain agricultural products exported in the form of goods not covered by Annex I to the Treaty, and the criteria for fixing the amount of such refunds (2), specifies the products for which a rate of refund is to be fixed, to be applied where these products are exported in the form of goods listed in Annex VII to Regulation (EC) No 318/2006.

(3)

In accordance with the first paragraph of Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 1043/2005, the rate of the refund per 100 kilograms for each of the basic products in question is to be fixed each month.

(4)

Article 32(4) of Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 lays down that the export refund for a product contained in goods may not exceed the refund applicable to that product when exported without further processing.

(5)

The refunds fixed under this Regulation may be fixed in advance as the market situation over the next few months cannot be established at the moment.

(6)

The commitments entered into with regard to refunds which may be granted for the export of agricultural products contained in goods not covered by Annex I to the Treaty may be jeopardised by the fixing in advance of high refund rates. It is therefore necessary to take precautionary measures in such situations without, however, preventing the conclusion of long-term contracts. The fixing of a specific refund rate for the advance fixing of refunds is a measure which enables these various objectives to be met.

(7)

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

(1)

The Commission has negotiated, on behalf of the Communities, an Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the Swiss Confederation, of the other part (the Agreement), also providing for its provisional application.

(2)

The Agreement was signed by the representatives of the Parties on 25 June 2007 in Luxembourg, subject to its conclusion at a later date.

(3)

The Agreement should be approved,

(1)

The Second Additional Protocol to the Economic Partnership, Political Coordination and Cooperation Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the United Mexican States, of the other part, was signed on behalf of the European Community and its Member States on 21 February 2007.

(2)

The Second Additional Protocol should be approved,