(1)

A Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, of the other part (‘the Stabilisation and Association Agreement’), was signed in Luxembourg on 16 June 2008. The Stabilisation and Association Agreement is in the process of ratification.

(2)

On 16 June 2008 an Interim Agreement was concluded on trade and trade-related matters between the European Community, of the one part, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, of the other part (2) (‘the Interim Agreement’), which was approved by Council Decision 2008/474/EC (3). The Interim Agreement provides for the early entry into force of the trade and trade-related provisions of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement. It entered into force on 1 July 2008.

(3)

The Interim Agreement and the Stabilisation and Association Agreement provide that certain fish and fishery products originating in Bosnia and Herzegovina may be imported into the European Union, within the limits of tariff quotas of the Union (‘quotas’), at a reduced or a zero rate of customs duty.

(4)

The tariff quotas provided for in the Interim Agreement and in the Stabilisation and Association Agreement are annual and have been adopted for an indefinite period. It is necessary to open the tariff quotas for 2008 and following years and to provide for a common system for their management.

(5)

This common management should ensure that all importers in the European Union have equal and continuous access to the tariff quotas and that the rates laid down for the quotas are applied uninterruptedly to all imports of the products in question into all Member States until the quotas are exhausted. In order to ensure the efficiency of the system, Member States should be authorised to draw from the quota volumes the necessary quantities corresponding to actual imports. Close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission is required and the latter must in particular be able to monitor the rate at which the quotas are used up and inform the Member States accordingly. For reasons of speed and efficiency, communication between the Member States and the Commission should, as far as possible, take place by electronic transmission.

(6)

The quotas opened by this Regulation should therefore be managed in accordance with the system for management of tariff quotas designed to be used following the chronological order of dates of acceptance of customs declarations which is provided for in Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code (4).

(7)

As the Interim Agreement entered into force on 1 July 2008, this Regulation should apply from the same date and should remain in force after the entry into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

(8)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,

(1)

Pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 and in accordance with Article 17(2) thereof, the Commission has examined Italy’s application for the approval of amendments to the specification for the protected designation of origin ‘Montasio’ registered under Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 (2), as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1263/96 (3).

(2)

Since the amendments in question are not minor within the meaning of Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006, the Commission published the amendment application in the Official Journal of the European Union (4), as required by the first subparagraph of Article 6(2) of that Regulation. As no statement of objection within the meaning of Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 has been notified to the Commission, the amendments should be approved,

(1)

Article 1 of Commission Regulation (EU) No 447/2010 (2) lays down that the skimmed milk powder entered into storage before 1 November 2009 is available for sale by tendering procedure. For sake of clarity, it is appropriate to fix the unit of measure to which the proposed price should refer to.

(2)

Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 447/2010 lays down that the submission of the tenders in response to individual invitations to tender has to be made on the first and the third Tuesday of the month. The current dairy market situation allows reducing the number of individual invitations to tender to once per month.

(3)

Regulation (EU) No 447/2010 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(4)

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)

in Article 1 the following paragraph is added:

‘The proposed price shall be the price per 100 kg of products.’;

(b)

in Article 2, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

(1)

The representative prices and additional duties applicable to imports of white sugar, raw sugar and certain syrups for the 2010/11 marketing year are fixed by Commission Regulation (EU) No 867/2010 (3). These prices and duties have been last amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 353/2011 (4).

(2)

The data currently available to the Commission indicate that those amounts should be amended in accordance with the rules and procedures laid down in Regulation (EC) No 951/2006,

(1)

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was established to provide additional support for workers made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation and to assist them with their reintegration into the labour market.

(2)

The scope of the EGF was broadened for applications submitted from 1 May 2009 to include support for workers made redundant as a direct result of the global financial and economic crisis.

(3)

The Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 allows the mobilisation of the EGF within the annual ceiling of EUR 500 million.

(4)

The Czech Republic submitted an application on 24 March 2010 to mobilise the EGF in respect of redundancies in Unilever ČR spol.s r.o. and supplemented it with additional information up to 20 September 2010. This application complies with the requirements for determining the financial contributions as laid down in Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006. The Commission, therefore, proposes to mobilise an amount of EUR 323 820.

(5)

The EGF should, therefore, be mobilised in order to provide a financial contribution for the application submitted by the Czech Republic,

(1)

Commission Regulations (EC) No 451/2000 (2) and (EC) No 1490/2002 (3) lay down the detailed rules for the implementation of the second and third stages of the programme of work referred to in Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414/EEC and establish a list of active substances to be assessed, with a view to their possible inclusion in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC. That list included dichlobenil.

(2)

In accordance with Article 11f of Regulation (EC) No 1490/2002 and Article 12(1)(a) and Article 12(2)(b) of that Regulation, Commission Decision 2008/754/EC of 18 September 2008 concerning the non-inclusion of dichlobenil in Annex I to Council Directive 91/414/EEC and the withdrawal of authorisations for plant protection products containing that substance (4) was adopted.

(3)

The original notifier (hereinafter ‘the applicant’) submitted a new application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Directive 91/414/EEC requesting the accelerated procedure to be applied, as provided for in Articles 14 to 19 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 33/2008 of 17 January 2008 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Directive 91/414/EEC as regards a regular and an accelerated procedure for the assessment of active substances which were part of the programme of work referred to in Article 8(2) of that Directive but have not been included into its Annex I (5).

(4)

The application was submitted to the United Kingdom, which had been designated rapporteur Member State by Regulation (EC) No 1490/2002. The time period for the accelerated procedure was respected. The specification of the active substance and the supported uses are the same as were the subject of Decision 2008/754/EC. That application also complies with the remaining substantive and procedural requirements of Article 15 of Regulation (EC) No 33/2008.

(5)

The United Kingdom evaluated the additional data submitted by the applicant and prepared an additional report. It communicated that report to the European Food Safety Authority (hereinafter ‘the Authority’) and to the Commission on 7 October 2009. The Authority communicated the additional report to the other Member States and the applicant for comments and forwarded the comments it had received to the Commission. In accordance with Article 20(1) of Regulation (EC) No 33/2008 and at the request of the Commission, the Authority presented its conclusion on dichlobenil to the Commission on 29 July 2010 (6). The draft assessment report, the additional report and the conclusion of the Authority were reviewed by the Member States and the Commission within the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health and finalised on 11 March 2011 in the format of the Commission review report for dichlobenil.

(6)

The additional report by the rapporteur Member State and the conclusion by the Authority concentrate on the concerns that lead to the non-inclusion; in particular, there was a concern with regard to the consumer exposure from drinking water and the leaching to groundwater. More concerns were identified in the review report for dichlobenil.

(7)

Additional information was submitted by the applicant, in particular as regards the leaching to groundwater, the consumer exposure from drinking water, the risks to birds and mammals and methods of analysis for impurities in the technical material and for products of animal origin.

(8)

However, the additional information provided by the applicant did not permit to eliminate all of the specific concerns arising in respect of dichlobenil.

(9)

During the evaluation of this active substance, a number of concerns have been identified. Several unacceptable effects on the environment were identified. In particular, the potential groundwater contamination by the very persistent metabolite 2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM) is expected to be very high, with concentrations well above 10 μg/l for all modelled scenarios. There is a potential for long-range transport of the metabolite BAM through the atmosphere. A high acute risk to birds and a high long-term risk to earthworm-eating birds and mammals were identified. The available data were insufficient to address the nature of residues of the metabolite BAM in processed commodities.

(10)

The Commission invited the applicant to submit its comments on the conclusion by the Authority. Furthermore, in accordance with Article 21(1) to Regulation (EC) No 33/2008, the Commission invited the applicant to submit comments on the draft review report. The applicant submitted its comments, which have been carefully examined.

(11)

However, despite the arguments put forward by the applicant, the concerns identified could not be eliminated, and assessments made on the basis of the information submitted and evaluated during the expert meetings of the Authority have not demonstrated that it may be expected that, under the proposed conditions of use, plant protection products containing dichlobenil satisfy in general the requirements laid down in Article 5(1)(a) and (b) of Directive 91/414/EEC.

(12)

Dichlobenil should therefore not be included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC.

(13)

In the interest of clarity, Decision 2008/754/EC should be repealed.

(14)

This Decision does not prejudice the submission of a further application for dichlobenil pursuant to Article 6(2) of Directive 91/414/EEC and Chapter II of Regulation (EC) No 33/2008.

(15)

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