Conditions and eligibility requirements
Article 3
1. Operators applying for an import or export licence within a tariff quota shall be established and registered for VAT purposes in the Union. They shall submit their application for licence to the licence issuing authority of the Member State of their establishment and their VAT registration (hereinafter the ‘licence issuing authority’). 2. Where an operator applies for a licence within a tariff quota that is subject to the proof of trade requirement set out in Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, it shall submit, together with the first licence application within each tariff quota period, proof of trade in accordance with Article 8 of this Regulation. 3. Where an operator applies for an import licence within a tariff quota that is subject to the reference quantity requirement set out in Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, it shall submit, together with the first licence application, the documents required in Article 10 of this Regulation for establishing the reference quantity. 4. Where an operator applies for an import licence within a tariff quota for which prior registration of operators is required pursuant to Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, it shall be registered in accordance with Article 13 of this Regulation prior to submitting that application. 5. Only operators that fulfil the requirement of independence set out in Article 11 and submit a declaration of independence in accordance with Article 12 may apply for tariff quotas for which prior registration of operators is required. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, prior registration of operators shall not be required where the reference quantity requirement referred to in paragraph 3 was suspended in accordance with Article 9(9).