Council Regulation (EC) No 318/2006 (repealed)Show full title

CHAPTER 4 Market management

Article 16 Production charge

1. As from the marketing year 2007/2008, a production charge shall be levied on the sugar quota, the isoglucose quota and the inulin syrup quota held by undertakings producing sugar, isoglucose or inulin syrup.

2. The production charge shall be set at EUR 12,00 per tonne of the quota sugar and quota inulin syrup. For isoglucose, the production charge shall be set at 50 % of the charge applicable to sugar.

3. The totality of the production charge paid in accordance with paragraph 1 shall be charged by the Member State to the undertakings on its territory according to the quota held during the marketing year concerned.

Payments shall be made by the undertakings by the end of February of the relevant marketing year at the latest.

4. Community sugar and inulin syrup undertakings may require sugar-beet or sugar-cane growers or chicory suppliers to bear up to 50 % of the production charge concerned.

Article 17 Approved operators

1. On request, Member States shall grant an approval to an undertaking producing sugar, isoglucose or inulin syrup or to an undertaking that processes these products into a product included in the list referred to in Article 13(2) provided that the undertaking:

(a) proves his professional production capacities;

(b) agrees to provide any information and to be subject to controls related to this Regulation;

(c) is not subject to suspension or withdrawal of the approval.

2. The approved undertakings shall provide the Member State in whose territory the harvest of beet, cane or the refining takes place, with the following information:

(a) the quantities of beet or cane for which a delivery contract has been concluded, as well as the corresponding estimated yields of beet or cane, and sugar per hectare;

(b) data regarding provisional and actual sugar beet, sugar cane and raw sugar deliveries, and regarding sugar production and statements of sugar stocks;

(c) quantities of white sugar sold and corresponding prices and conditions.

Article 18 Private storage and intervention

1. If the average Community price recorded is below the reference price, during a representative period, and is likely to remain at that level, taking into account the market situation, aid for private storage of white sugar may be granted to undertakings which are allocated a sugar quota.

2. Throughout the marketing years 2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, the intervention agency designated by each sugar-producing Member State shall buy in, up to a total quantity of 600 000 tonnes, expressed in white sugar, per marketing year for the Community, any white or raw sugar offered to it provided that the sugar concerned:

• has been produced under quota and manufactured from beet or cane harvested in the Community,

• has been the subject of a storage contract concluded between the seller and the intervention agency.

Intervention agencies shall buy in at 80 % of the reference price fixed in Article 3 for the marketing year following the marketing year during which the offer is lodged. If the quality of the sugar differs from the standard quality for which the reference price is fixed, this price shall be increased or reduced accordingly.

3. Intervention agencies may sell sugar only at a price which is higher than the reference price fixed for the marketing year in which the sale takes place.

However, it may be decided in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 39(2), whilst respecting the commitments resulting from agreements concluded under Article 300 of the Treaty, that intervention agencies:

(a) may sell sugar at a price equal to or lower than the reference price referred to in the first subparagraph if the sugar is intended:

• (a) for use as animal feed,

  (a) or

• for export, either without further processing or after processing into products listed in Annex I to the Treaty or into goods listed in Annex VII to this Regulation.

(b) are to make unprocessed sugar held by them available, for human consumption on the internal market of the Community, to charitable organisations — recognised by the Member State concerned or by the Commission in cases where a Member State has not recognised any such organisation — at a price which is lower than the current reference price or free of charge for the distribution as part of individual emergency aid operations.

Article 19 Withdrawal of sugar

1. In order to preserve the structural balance of the market at a price level which is close to the reference price, taking into account the commitments of the Community resulting from agreements concluded in accordance with Article 300 of the Treaty, a percentage, common to all Member States, of quota sugar, quota isoglucose and quota inulin syrup may be withdrawn from the market until the beginning of the following marketing year.

In that case, the traditional supply need for refining imported raw sugar referred to in Article 29(1) of this Regulation shall be reduced by the same percentage for the marketing year concerned.

2. The withdrawal percentage referred to in paragraph 1 shall be determined by 31 October of the marketing year concerned at the latest on the basis of expected market trends during that marketing year.

3. Each undertaking provided with a quota shall store at its own expense during the period of withdrawal the quantities of sugar corresponding to the application of the percentage referred to in paragraph 1 to its production under quota for the marketing year concerned.

The sugar quantities withdrawn during a marketing year shall be treated as the first quantities produced under quota for the following marketing year. However, taking into account the expected sugar market trends, it may be decided, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 39(2), to consider, for the current and/or the following marketing year, all or part of the withdrawn sugar, isoglucose or inulin syrup as:

• surplus sugar, surplus isoglucose or surplus inulin syrup available to become industrial sugar, industrial isoglucose or industrial inulin syrup,

  or

• temporary quota production of which a part may be reserved for export respecting commitments of the Community resulting from agreements concluded under Article 300 of the Treaty.

4. If sugar supply in the Community is inadequate, it may be decided, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 39(2), that a certain quantity of withdrawn sugar, isoglucose and inulin syrup may be sold on the Community market before the end of the period of withdrawal.

Article 20 Storage under different measures

Sugar stored under one of the measures referred to in Article 14, Article 18 or Article 19 during a marketing year may not be subject to private or public storage under any other of those provisions.