Commission Regulation (EC) No 1295/2008Dangos y teitl llawn

Article 1

1. Entry into free circulation in the Community of the products from third countries referred to in point (f) of Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 shall be conditional upon proof being furnished that the requirements specified in Article 158(1) of that Regulation have been met.

2. The proof referred to in Article 1(1) of this Regulation shall be furnished by production of the attestation provided for in Article 158(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, hereinafter referred to as an ‘attestation of equivalence’.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation, ‘consignment’ means a quantity of a product having the same characteristics and sent by the same consignor at the same time to the same consignee.

Article 3

Attestations accompanying hops and hop products imported from third countries issued by an agency authorised by the third country of origin and appearing in Annex I shall be recognised as attestations of equivalence.

Annex I shall be revised on the basis of information communicated by the third countries concerned.

Article 4

1. The attestation of equivalence shall be made out for each consignment and shall consist of an original and two copies to be drawn up on a form corresponding to the model set out in Annex II and in accordance with the rules set out in Annex IV.

2. An attestation of equivalence shall be valid only if it is duly completed and authenticated by one of the agencies referred to in Annex I.

3. A duly authenticated attestation of equivalence is one which shows the place and date of issue and which has been signed and bears the stamp of the issuing agency.

Article 5

1. Each unit of packaging covered by an attestation of equivalence shall bear the following particulars in one of the official languages of the Community:

(a) the description of the product;

(b) the variety or varieties;

(c) the country of origin;

(d) the marks and numbers indicated in section 9 of the attestation of equivalence or the extract.

2. The particulars provided for in paragraph 1 shall appear in legible, indelible characters of uniform size on the outside of the package.

Article 6

1. Where, before its entry into free circulation, a consignment covered by an attestation of equivalence is split up and redispatched an attestation extract shall be drawn up in respect of each new consignment resulting from such splitting.

The attestation shall be replaced by the necessary number of attestation extracts.

Each extract shall be drawn up by the party concerned in one original and two copies on a form corresponding to the model given in Annex III and in accordance with the rules set out in Annex IV.

2. The customs authorities shall endorse accordingly the original and the two copies of the attestation of equivalence, and shall countersign the original and the two copies of each extract.

They shall retain the original of the attestation of equivalence, send the two copies to the competent authority as referred to in Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 1850/2006 and return the original and the two copies of each extract to the person concerned.

Article 7

On completion of customs formalities required for release for free circulation in the Community of the product to which the attestation of equivalence or the extract relates, the original and the two copies shall be submitted to the customs authorities who shall countersign them, retaining the original. One copy shall be forwarded by the customs authorities to the competent authority, as referred to in Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 1850/2006, of the Member State where the product enters into free circulation. The second copy shall be returned to the importer, who must keep it for at least three years.

Article 8

If the consignment is resold or split up after it has been released for free circulation, the product must be accompanied by an invoice or other commercial document drawn up by the vendor, giving the reference number of the attestation of equivalence or of the extract, together with the name of the authority which issued them.

The following information from the attestation of equivalence or, as the case may be, the extract shall also be included on the invoice or commercial document:

(a)

for hop cones:

(i)

the description of the product;

(ii)

the gross weight;

(iii)

the place of production;

(iv)

the year of harvest;

(v)

the variety;

(vi)

the country of origin;

(vii)

the markings and identification numbers given in Section 9 of the attestation;

(b)

for products manufactured from hops, in addition to the particulars listed under point (a): the place and date of processing.

Article 9

1. The Member States shall regularly carry out checks on a random basis to verify whether hops which are imported pursuant to Article 158 of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 comply with the minimum marketing requirements set out in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1850/2006.

2. The Member States shall report to the Commission, every year by 30 June, the frequency, type and result of the checks which were carried out over the year preceding that date. The checks shall cover at least 5 % of the number of hop consignments expected to be imported from a third country into the Member State in question during the year.

3. If the competent authorities of the Member States find that the samples examined do not satisfy the minimum marketing requirements referred to in paragraph 1, the corresponding consignments may not be marketed in the Community.

4. If a Member State discovers that the characteristics of a product do not conform to the details listed on the attestation of equivalence accompanying the product it shall notify the Commission thereof.

In accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 195(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, a decision may be taken to withdraw the agency having issued the attestation of equivalence for such products from the list in Annex I.

Article 10

By way of derogation from this Regulation, neither the production of the attestation referred to in Article 1(2) nor compliance with the provisions of Article 5 shall be required for the release for free circulation of the following hops and hop products where the weight per individual package does not exceed 1 kg in the case of hop cones and hop powder and 300 g in the case of hop extracts:

(a)

small packages for sale to private individuals for their own use;

(b)

for scientific and technical experiments;

(c)

for fairs covered by the special customs arrangements for fairs.

The description, weight and final utilisation of the product must appear on the packaging.

Article 11

Regulations (EEC) No 3076/78 and (EEC) No 3077/78 are repealed.

References to the repealed Regulations shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex VI.

Article 12

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 18 December 2008

For the Commission

The President

José Manuel Barroso