1.No application for a licence or certificate shall be accepted unless it is forwarded to or lodged with the competent body on forms printed and/or made out in accordance with Article 17.
However, competent bodies may accept written telecommunications and electronic messages as valid applications, provided they include all the information which would have appeared on the form, had it been used. Member States may require that a written telecommunication and/or electronic message be followed by an application on a form printed or made out in accordance with Article 17, forwarded or delivered direct to the competent body; in such cases the date on which the written telecommunication or electronic message reached the competent body shall be taken as the day the application is lodged. This requirement shall not affect the validity of applications forwarded by written telecommunication or electronic message.
Where applications for licences or certificates are submitted electronically, the competent authorities of the Member State shall determine how the handwritten signature is to be replaced by another method, which might be based on the use of codes.
2.Applications for licences and certificates may be cancelled only by letter, written telecommunication or electronic message received by the competent body, except in cases of force majeure, by 1 p.m. on the day the application is lodged.
1.Section 16 of applications for licences with advance fixing of the refund and of licences themselves shall show the 12-digit code of the product taken from the nomenclature of agricultural products for use with export refunds.
However, where the rate of refund is the same for several codes in the same category, to be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 195(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 and the corresponding Articles of the other Regulations governing market organisations, these codes may be entered together on licence applications and on the licences themselves.
2.Where rates of refund are differentiated according to destination, the country or area of destination, as the case may be, must be indicated in Section 7 both on applications and on the licences themselves.
3.Without prejudice to the first subparagraph of paragraph 1, where a product group as referred to in the second indent of the first subparagraph of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 800/1999 is defined, the product codes belonging to the group may be entered in Section 22 of licence applications and licences, preceded by the statement, ‘product group referred to in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 800/1999’.
1.Applications containing conditions not provided for in Community rules shall be refused.
2.No application for a licence or certificate shall be accepted unless an adequate security has been lodged with the competent body not later than 1 p.m. on the day the application is lodged.
3.Where the security on a licence or certificate comes to EUR 100 or less, or where the licence or certificate is drawn up in the name of an intervention agency, no security shall be required.
4.Where Member States avail themselves of the options referred to in Article 5 of Regulation (EEC) No 2220/85, the amount of the security shall be claimed on expiry of the time limit of two months following the date on which the validity of the licence expires.
5.No security shall be required in the case of export licences issued in respect of exports to third countries in connection with non-Community food-aid operations conducted by humanitarian agencies approved for that purpose by the exporting Member State. The Member State shall inform the Commission immediately of such approved humanitarian agencies.
6.Where paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 are applied, the third subparagraph of Article 4(1) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
Applications for licences and licences with advance fixing of the refund which are drawn up in connection with a food-aid operation within the meaning of Article 10(4) of the Agreement on Agriculture, concluded as part of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, shall contain in Section 20 at least one of the entries listed in Annex III, Part B, of this Regulation.
The country of destination shall be indicated in Section 7. This licence shall be valid only for exports in the context of such food-aid operations.
1.The day an application for a licence or certificate is lodged means the day on which it is received by the competent body, provided it is received not later than 1 p.m., regardless of whether the application is delivered direct to the competent body or forwarded to it by letter or written telecommunication or electronic message.
2.An application for a licence or certificate received by the competent body either on a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday or after 1 p.m. on a working day shall be deemed to have been lodged on the first working day following the day on which it was in fact received.
3.Where a period of a specified number of days is laid down for the lodging of applications for licences or certificates and where the last day of the period falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday, the period in question shall end on the first following working day at 1 p.m.
However, such extensions shall not be taken into account for the purpose of calculating the amounts fixed in the licence or certificate or for determining its period of validity.
4.The time limits specified in this Regulation are in Belgian local time.
1.Without prejudice to the second subparagraph of Article 12(1) and Article 18(1), applications for licences or certificates, licences and certificates and extracts therefrom shall be drawn up on forms conforming to the specimens set out in Annex I. Such forms must be completed following the instructions given therein and in accordance with the specific Community provisions applicable to the relevant product sector.
2.Licence and certificate forms shall be made up in sets containing copy No 1, copy No 2 and the application, together with any extra copies of the licence or certificate, in that order.
However, Member States may require applicants to complete an application form only, instead of the sets provided for in the first subparagraph.
Where, as a result of a Community measure, the quantity for which the licence or certificate is issued may be less than the quantity in respect of which application for a licence or certificate was initially made, the quantity applied for and the amount of the security relating thereto must be entered only on the application form.
Forms for extracts of licences or certificates shall be made up in sets containing copy No 1 and copy No 2, in that order.
3.Forms, including extension pages, shall be printed to white paper free of mechanical pulp, dressed for writing and weighing at least 40 grams per square metre. Their size shall be 210 × 297 mm, the permitted length ranging from 5 mm below the latter figure to 8 mm above; the type space between lines shall be 4,24 mm (one sixth of an inch); the layout of forms shall be followed precisely. Both sides of copy No 1 and the side of the extension pages on which the attributions must appear shall in addition have a printed guilloche pattern background so as to reveal any falsification by mechanical or chemical means. The guilloche background shall be green for forms relating to imports and sepia brown for forms relating to exports.
4.Member States shall be responsible for having the forms printed. The forms may also be printed by printers appointed by the Member State in which they are established. In the latter case, reference to the approval by the Member State must appear on each form. Each form shall bear an indication of the printer's name and address or a mark enabling the printer to be identified and, except for the application form and extension pages, an individual serial number. The number shall be preceded by the following letters according to the Member State issuing the document: ‘AT’ for Austria, ‘BE’ for Belgium, ‘BG’ for Bulgaria, ‘CZ’ for the Czech Republic, ‘CY’ for Cyprus, ‘DE’ for Germany, ‘DK’ for Denmark, ‘EE’ for Estonia, ‘EL’ for Greece, ‘ES’ for Spain, ‘FI’ for Finland, ‘FR’ for France, ‘HU’ for Hungary, ‘IE’ for Ireland, ‘IT’ for Italy, ‘LU’ for Luxembourg, ‘LT’ for Lithuania, ‘LV’ for Latvia, ‘MT’ for Malta, ‘NL’ for the Netherlands, ‘PL’ for Poland, ‘PT’ for Portugal, ‘RO’ for Romania, ‘SE’ for Sweden, ‘SI’ for Slovenia, ‘SK’ for Slovakia and ‘UK’ for the United Kingdom.
At the time of their issue, licences or certificates and extracts may bear an issue number allocated by the issuing body.
5.Application, licences and certificates and extracts shall be completed in typescript or by computerised means. They shall be printed and completed in one of the official languages of the Community, as specified by the competent authorities of the issuing Member State. However, Member States may allow applications only to be hand-written in ink and in block capitals.
6.The stamps of issuing bodies and attributing authorities shall be applied by means of a metal stamp, preferably made of steel. However, an embossing press combined with letters or figures obtained by means of perforation may be substituted for the issuing body's stamp.
7.The competent authorities of the Member States concerned may, where necessary, require licences or certificates and extracts therefrom to be translated into the official language or one of the official languages of that Member State.
1.Without prejudice to Article 17, licences and certificates may be issued and used using computerised systems in accordance with detailed rules laid down by the competent authorities. They are known hereinafter as ‘electronic licences and certificates’.
The content of electronic licences and certificates must be identical to that of licences and certificates on paper.
2.Where titular holders or transferees of licences or certificates need to use the electronic form thereof in a Member State which is not linked to the computerised issuing system, they shall request an extract therefrom.
Such extracts shall be issued without delay and at no additional cost on a form as provided for in Article 17.
In Member States linked to the computerised issuing system, such extracts shall be used in the form of the paper extract.
1.Where the amounts resulting from the conversion of euro into sums in national currency to be entered on licences or certificates contain three or more decimal places, only the first two shall be given. In such cases, where the third place is five or more the second place shall be rounded up to the next unit, and where the third place is less than five the second place shall remain the same.
2.However, where amounts expressed in euro are converted into pounds sterling, the reference to the first two decimal places in paragraph 1 shall be read as a reference to the first four decimal places. In such cases, where the fifth place is five or more the fourth decimal place shall be rounded up to the next unit and where the fifth place is less than five the fourth place shall remain the same.
1.Without prejudice to Article 18 relating to electronic licences and certificates, licences and certificates shall be drawn up in at least two copies, the first of which, called ‘holder's copy’ and marked ‘No 1’, shall be supplied without delay to the applicant and the second, called ‘issuing body's copy’ and marked ‘No 2’, shall be retained by the issuing body.
2.Where a licence or certificate is issued for a quantity less than that for which the application was made, the issuing body shall indicate:
(a)in Sections 17 and 18, the quantity for which the licence or certificate is issued;
(b)in Section 11, the amount of the corresponding security.
The security lodged in respect of the quantity for which a licence or certificate has not been issued shall be released forthwith.
1.On application by the titular holder of the licence or certificate or by the transferee, and on presentation of copy No 1 of the document, one or more extracts therefrom may be issued by the issuing body or the agency or agencies designated by each Member State.
Extracts shall be drawn up in at least two copies, the first of which, called ‘holder's copy’ and marked ‘No 1’, shall be supplied or addressed to the applicant and the second, called ‘issuing body's copy’ and marked ‘No 2’, shall be retained by the issuing body.
The body issuing the extract shall, on copy No 1 of the licence or certificate, enter the quantity for which the extract has been issued, increased by the relevant tolerance. The word ‘extract’ shall be entered beside the quantity entered on copy No 1 of the licence or certificate.
2.No further extract may be made of an extract of a licence or certificate.
3.Copy No 1 of an extract which has been used or which is out of date shall be returned by the titular holder to the body which issued the licence or certificate, together with copy No 1 of the licence or certificate from which it derives, so that the body may adjust the entries on copy No 1 of the licence or certificate in the light of those appearing on copy No 1 of the extract.
1.For the purpose of determining their period of validity, licences and certificates shall be considered to have been issued on the day on which the application for them was lodged, that day being included in the calculation of such period of validity. However, licences and certificates may not be used until their actual issue.
2.It may be specified that a licence or certificate is to become valid on its actual day of issue, in which case that day shall be included in the calculation of its period of validity.