Commission Regulation (EC) No 1609/1999 of 22 July 1999 laying down the detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 856/1999 establishing a special framework of assistance to traditional ACP suppliers of bananas
1. Requests for technical and financial assistance in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 856/1999 shall be presented by the traditional ACP supplier concerned to the Commission, at the beginning of each calendar year and no later than 60 days after the financial allocations, referred to in Article 2, have been notified. Account will be taken of the special situation of Somalia.
2. These requests should be based on a coherent long-term strategy for the banana sector, defined by the ACP country concerned, in consultation with the actors involved in the sector, and agreed by the Commission. The strategy should define the specific objective pursued in accordance with Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 856/1999, assess its viability and set out the approach to achieve this objective. It should further provide the necessary information allowing to assess its consistency with the general development objectives of the traditional ACP supplier concerned. Particular attention shall be paid to the possibility of carrying out projects on a regional level.
3. Programmes submitted for financing should be drawn up on the basis of the agreed strategy and take the form of annual action plans.
The maximum amount available for the financing of programmes referred to in Article 1(3) above shall be fixed annually. Without prejudice to Article 6 below, it shall be individually calculated for each traditional ACP supplier on the basis of the competitivity gap observed and the importance of banana production for the economy of the country concerned, both criteria being equally weighted.
1. The competitivity gap shall be calculated on the basis of the reference quantities and the difference between the third country reference price and the ACP reference price.
2. The reference quantity shall be the average quantity of bananas exported by each individual ACP supplier to the Community for the last three years preceding the entry into force of Council Regulation (EC) No 1637/98. By derogation and taking account of its particular situation, the reference quantity for Somalia is fixed at 60000 tonnes. Reference quantities to be applied are listed in Annex I.
3. The third country reference price shall be the lowest average price per tonne of bananas produced in any individual established third country supplier other than an ACP country and exported to the Community during the last three years preceding the year of application, in respect of which the assistance is requested, for which statistics are available.
4. The ACP reference price shall be the average price per tonne of bananas produced in the traditional ACP supplier concerned and exported to the Community during the same period. In cases where banana exports have ceased as a consequence of diversification, the average ACP reference price shall be applied.
5. Reference prices referred to in paragraph 3 and 4 above shall be cif prices. The statistics needed for the calculation of the competitivity gap shall be those drawn up and published on Community imports by the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
The importance of the banana production for the economy of the traditional ACP supplier concerned shall be established on the basis of the share of the value added by the banana sector to the total GDP of the traditional ACP supplier concerned in the last three years, preceding entry into force of Council Regulation (EC) No 1637/98, for which statistics are available. The statistics needed for the establishment of the importance of the banana production shall be those drawn up by the International Monetary Fund or in their absence by UNCTAD. By derogation and taking account of its particular situation, the calculation factor for Somalia is fixed at 1,0. The calculation factor resulting from these statistics is listed in Annex II.
Without prejudice to Articles 2 to 4 above, an automatic reduction coefficient shall be applied as from the year 2004 and for each year thereafter to the allocations made available. The reduction coefficient shall be fixed individually at the appropriate level to ensure that the level of assistance made available to each individual traditional ACP supplier during the year of application is reduced by not more than 15 % compared to the level of funds made available in the previous year.
Where calculations carried out in accordance with Articles 2 to 5 above lead to an amount inferior to EUR 0,5 million per year, a minimum amount of EUR 0,5 million shall be allocated.
Where any traditional ACP supplier has not presented a request for technical and financial assistance within the deadline set out in Article 1(1) or where programmes presented are not in compliance with the long-term strategy defined in Article 1(2), the Commission will reallocate the amounts initially made available to the remaining ACP suppliers, on the basis of the programmes presented and in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 856/99. Account will be taken of the special situation of Somalia.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities is applicable from 1 January 1999.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 22 July 1999.
For the Commission
Franz FISCHLER
Member of the Commission
(1) OJ L 108, 27.4.1999, p. 2.
(2) OJ L 210, 28.7.1998, p. 28.
Supplementary provisions
ANNEX ISupplementary provisions
List provided for in Article 3(2)
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ANNEX II
List provided for in Article 4
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Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), Β© European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
