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THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community,
Having regard to Regulation (EEC) No 1418/76 of the Council of 21 June 1976 on the common organization of the market in rice(1), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1806/89(2), and in particular Article 5 (5) thereof,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1424/76 of 21 June 1976 laying down general rules for intervention on the market in rice(3), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 794/91(4) and in particular the second paragraph of Article 4 thereof,
Whereas where rice is purchased from intervention agencies for the purposes of fulfilling obligations arising from the award of food-aid supply contracts in connection with international conventions on food aid or other supplementary programmes, the conditions applicable with regard to prices and the detailed rules of application are to be determined in advance;
Whereas, in order to enable interested parties to take part under optimum conditions in the procedure for the award of food-aid supply contracts, they should be given the possibility of examining at their expense the quality and the characteristics of the product before the expiry of the closing date for the submission of tenders;
Whereas, in order to facilitate transactions, purchase applications must contain all information required to identify the product;
Whereas, in order to avoid disruption of the Community market and any distortion of competition between Community operators, the purchase price for the goods from public storage must be determined according to clear-cut criteria and be known to all tenderers in advance; whereas, in view of these requirements, provision should be made for goods purchased by the person awarded a food-aid supply contract to be paid for at the buying-in price determined pursuant to Article 5 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1418/76;
Whereas, in order that the conditions of competition existing when tenders are submitted for the award of the food-aid supply contract are not altered subsequent to the award of the contract, a derogation from the application of certain procedures for adjusting the prices on the basis of the date of conclusion of the purchase contract or the date of removal of the goods should be introduced;
Whereas Article 4 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2200/87 of 8 July 1987 laying down general rules for the mobilization in the Community of products to be supplied as Community food aid(5) makes provision for the successful tenderer to deliver, with a view to a food-aid supply contract, rather than goods from public stocks or, where appropriate, manufactured therefrom, goods mobilized on the market or manufactured therefrom provided that he purchases the goods mentioned in the notice of invitation to tender; whereas compliance with this latter obligation is essential on the one hand to meet the objective of contributing towards reducing public stocks and on the other hand to ensure the equality of operators in the award of the supply contract; whereas provision should therefore be made for the lodging by the successful tenderer of a specific security to ensure compliance with the obligation to pay the purchase price to the intervention agency concerned within a short time; whereas, consequently, with a view to that objective, provision should be made for failure to lodge a purchase application with the intervention agency under the conditions laid down to result in the loss of the security relating to the supply of the food aid, lodged pursuant to Article 12 of Regulation (EEC) No 2200/87; whereas Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2220/85 of 22 July 1985 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of securities for agricultural products(6), as mended by Regulation (EEC) No 3745/89(7), should be applied for the lodging and the release of that specific security;
Whereas the execution of Community food-aid supply contracts is the subject of specific surveillance arrangements; whereas the provisions of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 569/88 of 16 February 1988 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of securities for agricultural products(8), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2322/91(9), should accordingly not apply;
Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Cereals,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: