Commission Regulation (EC) No 562/2000 of 15 March 2000 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 as regards the buying-in of beef

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the common organisation of the market in beef and veal⁽¹⁾, and in particular Article 27(4), Article 41 and Article 47(8) thereof,

Whereas:

1. From 1 July 2002, after a transitional period during which the previous buying-in arrangements are to continue to apply, Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 introduces a single buying-in scheme to replace the buying-in arrangements provided for in Council Regulation (EEC) No 805/68⁽²⁾, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1633/98⁽³⁾. In view of that new scheme, Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2456/93 of 1 September 1993 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No 805/68 as regards the general and special intervention measures for beef⁽⁴⁾, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2304/98⁽⁵⁾, must be amended. On the occasion of that amendment, for the sake of clarity, that Regulation should be recast. To ensure a smooth switchover to the new Regulation, the provisions now in force should be maintained until the second invitation to tender of March 2000. Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1627/89 of 9 June 1989 on the buying-in of beef by invitation to tender⁽⁶⁾, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 34/2000⁽⁷⁾, should also be repealed with effect from 1 July 2002.

2. Furthermore, certain rules of application should be supplemented or spelt out more clearly to take account of experience gained and specific problems encountered previously in the way public intervention operated. Such essentially technical rules relate in particular to the presentation, take-over, inspection and storage of the products bought in.

3. Since Article 47 of Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 provides for the current buying-in arrangements to continue to apply until 30 June 2002, transitional provisions setting out detailed rules of application specific to those arrangements must be laid down.

4. Article 27(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 ties the opening of public intervention to the average market price in a Member State or region of a Member State. Rules must accordingly be laid down for calculating the market prices in the Member States, in particular as regards the qualities to be used and weighting, the coefficients to be used for converting them into the reference quality grade R3 and the mechanisms for opening and closing buying-in.

5. The conditions for eligibility must rule out products that are not representative of national production of the Member State and that do not meet the health and veterinary rules in force and those over a weight normally sought after on the market. The eligibility of beef carcases of grade O3, which can be bought in in Ireland, should also be extended to Northern Ireland in order to prevent deflections of trade that might disturb the beef market in that part of the Community.

6. Specific rules on identifying eligible carcases should be laid down requiring the slaughter number to be stamped on the inner side of each quarter. As regards presentation, carcases should be cut in a uniform manner to facilitate the disposal of the cuts, improve monitoring of boning operations and as a result ensure that the cuts meet the same definition throughout the Community. To that end, carcases should be straight cut and forequarters and hindquarters should be defined as five-rib and eight-rib respectively in order to reduce to the minimum the number of boneless cuts and trimmings and to make the best use of the products obtained.

7. In order to prevent speculation that could distort the true market situation, interested parties should each be able to submit only one tender per category in response to each invitation to tender. In order to prevent the use of frontmen, ‘interested parties’ should be defined as including only the category of operators who are traditionally involved in intervention by virtue of their economic activities.

8. In view of experience gained in the area of tender submission, provision should also be made for interested parties to take part in invitations to tender, where appropriate, on the basis of contracts concluded with the intervention agencies in accordance with conditions to be stipulated in the specifications.

9. More precise rules should be laid down on the lodging of securities in cash so that intervention agencies can accept cheque guarantees.

10. Following the ban on the use of any specified risk material and in order to take into account the resulting increase in costs and fall in income in the beef and veal sector, the increase applicable to the average market price and used to determine the maximum buying-in price should be aligned as from 1 July 2002 on the highest amount at the time.

11. As far as the delivery of the products is concerned, in the light of experience the intervention agencies should be authorised, where applicable, to reduce the time limit for delivery of the products in order to prevent deliveries relating to two successive invitations to tender from overlapping.

12. The risks of irregularities are particularly high when carcases bought in are boned systematically. Intervention centres' refrigeration and cutting plants should therefore be required to be independent of the slaughterhouses and the successful tenderers concerned. To deal with any practical difficulties that may arise in certain Member States, derogations from that principle may be allowed, provided that the quantities boned are strictly limited and the checks conducted on take-over enable the boned meat to be traced and manipulations to be ruled out as far as possible. In the light of the latest investigations, greater emphasis must be laid on checks of residues of prohibited substances in meat, and in particular those substances having a hormonal action.

13. Only products meeting the quality and presentation requirements laid down by Community regulations may be taken over by intervention agencies. Experience shows that certain detailed rules should be laid down on take-over and checks. Provision should be made in particular for a preliminary inspection to be carried out at the slaughterhouse to eliminate ineligible meat at an early stage. In order to improve the reliability of the procedure for the acceptance of products delivered, qualified officials whose impartiality is guaranteed by their independence from the interested parties concerned and by their periodic rotation should be employed. The points to be covered by inspections should also be specified.

14. With a view to improving checks by intervention agencies on take-over of the products, the provisions on the procedure applied, in particular, for defining consignments, for preliminary inspections and for checking the weight of the products bought in should be made clearer. To that end, the provisions on the monitoring of boning of meat bought in and the rejection of products should be stricter. This also applies to inspections of products during storage.

15. The provisions applicable to carcases must stipulate in particular the way they are to be hung and specify any damage or handling liable to affect the commercial quality of the products or to contaminate them that is to be avoided during processing.

16. The freezing procedure has a direct effect on the quality and preservation of stored meat. Bone-in meat should accordingly be blastfrozen in the unwrapped state immediately after acceptance and should not be wrapped until immediately thereafter.

17. In order to ensure that boning is carried out properly, cutting plants should have one or more blast freezers nearby. Derogations from this requirement should be keep to an absolute minimum. The conditions governing the constant and continuous physical monitoring of boning should be stipulated, in particular by requiring inspectors to be independent and laying down a minimum number of checks to be conducted.

18. The rules on the storage of cuts must enable them to be identified easily. To that end, the competent national authorities must in particular take the necessary measures as regards traceability and storage with a view to facilitating the subsequent disposal of products bought in, by taking into account any requirements relating to the veterinary health status of the animals from which the products come. Furthermore, with a view to improving storage of cuts and simplifying identification, packing should be standardised and cuts should be designated by their full names or Community codes.

19. The provisions on packing in cartons, pallets and cages should be tightened up to facilitate the identification and improve the preservation of products in storage, to step up the fight against fraud and to improve access to products with a view to their inspection and disposal.

20. The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Beef and Veal,

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