Commission Regulation (EC) No 100/2008 of 4 February 2008 amending, as regards sample collections and certain formalities relating to the trade in species of wild fauna and flora, Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein (1), and in particular Article 19(1)(i) and (iii), (2) and (4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) In order to implement certain resolutions adopted at the thirteenth and fourteenth meetings of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, further provisions should be added to Commission Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 of 4 May 2006 laying down detailed rules concerning the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein (2).

(2) CITES Resolutions Conf. 9.7 (Rev. CoP13) on Transit and Trans Transhipment and Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP13) on Permits and Certificates provide for special procedures in order to ease the cross-border movement of sample collections covered by ATA carnets as defined in Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 of 2 July 1993 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code (3). In order to provide economic operators within the Community with similar conditions as those of other CITES Parties for the movement of such sample collections, it is necessary to make provision for such procedures in Community legislation.

(3) CITES Resolution Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP13) on Permits and Certificates allows for permits to be issued retrospectively for personal and household effects, where the Management Authority is satisfied that a genuine error was made and that there was no attempt to deceive, and requires Parties to report on such permits in the biennial reports to the Secretariat. Provision should be made to that effect in order to allow for adequate flexibility and to reduce the bureaucratic burden in relation to imports of personal and household effects.

(4) CITES Resolution Conf. 13.6 on the implementation of Article VII, paragraph 2 of the Convention concerning ‘pre-Convention’ specimens provides a definition of ‘pre-Convention’ specimen and clarifies the dates that are to be taken to establish whether a specimen can be considered as ‘pre-Convention’. For clarity purposes, these provisions should be implemented in Community Legislation.

(5) CITES Resolution Conf. 13.7 (Rev. CoP14) on Control of Trade in Personal and Household Effects provides a list of species for which no document is required for the export and import of specimens that are Personal and Household Effects below a certain amount. This list includes derogations for giant clams and seahorses as well as for a reduced quantity for caviar, which should be implemented.

(6) CITES Resolution Conf. 12.7 (Rev. CoP14) on Conservation of and Trade in sturgeons and paddlefish sets out specific conditions for Parties to allow imports, exports and re-exports of caviar. In order to reduce fraud, these provisions should be implemented in Community Legislation.

(7) At the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, the standard references for nomenclature, to be used to indicate scientific names of species in permits and certificates, were updated and the listing of animal species in the CITES Appendices were rearranged in order to present the orders, families and genera in alphabetical order. These changes therefore need to be reflected in Annex VIII and Annex X of Regulation (EC) No 865/2006.

(8) The Conference of the Parties to CITES has adopted a Biennial report format for the submission of the biennial reports required under Article VIII, paragraph 7(b) of the Convention. Member States should therefore submit their biennial reports in accordance with Biennial report format, as regards information required under the Convention, and in accordance with a supplementary report format as regards the information required under Regulation (EC) No 338/97 and Regulation (EC) No 865/2006.

(9) Experience gained in implementation of Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 has shown that the provisions therein relating to transaction-specific certificates need to be amended in order to provide greater flexibility in the use of such certificates and to allow them to be used in Member States other than the issuing Member State.

(10) Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(11) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 is amended as follows:

‘1.   The forms on which import permits, export permits, re-export certificates, personal ownership certificates, sample collection certificates and applications for such documents are drawn up shall conform, except as regards spaces reserved for national use, to the model set out in Annex I.’;

‘1.   Forms shall be completed in typescript. However, applications for import and export permits, for re-export certificates, for the certificates provided for in Articles 5(2)(b), 5(3), 5(4), 8(3) and 9(2)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, for personal ownership certificates, for sample collection certificates and for travelling exhibition certificates as well as import notifications, continuation sheets and labels may be completed in manuscript, provided this is done legibly, in ink and in block capitals.’;

‘Article 5a Specific content of permits, certificates and applications for plant specimens In case of plant specimens that cease to qualify for an exemption from the provisions of the Convention or Regulation (EC) No 338/97 in accordance with the “Notes on the interpretation of Annexes A, B, C and D” in the Annex thereto, under which they were legally exported and imported, the country to be indicated in box 15 of the forms in Annex I and III, box 4 of the forms in Annex II and box 10 of the forms in Annex V to this Regulation may be the country in which the specimens ceased to qualify for the exemption. In those cases the box reserved for the entry of “special conditions” in the permit or certificate shall include the statement “Legally imported under exemption from the provisions of CITES” and shall specify to which exemption this refers.’;

‘4.   Permits and certificates issued by third countries with source code “O” shall be accepted only if they cover specimens that conform to the definition of pre-Convention specimen set out in Article 1(10) and include either the date of acquisition of the specimens or a statement that the specimens were acquired before a specific date.’;

‘Article 9 Shipments of specimens Without prejudice to Articles 31, 38 and 44b, a separate import permit, import notification, export permit or re-export certificate shall be issued for each shipment of specimens shipped together as part of one load.’;

‘Article 20a Rejection of applications for import permits Member States shall reject applications for import permits for caviar and meat of sturgeon species (Acipenseriformes spp.) from shared stocks unless export quotas have been set for the species in accordance with the procedure approved by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention.’;

‘Article 26a Rejection of applications for export permits Member States shall reject applications for export permits for caviar and meat of sturgeon species (Acipenseriformes spp.) from shared stocks unless export quotas have been set for the species in accordance with the procedure approved by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention.’;

‘The replacement shall bear the same number, if possible, and the same date of validity as the original document, and shall include, in box 20, one of the following statements: “This certificate is a true copy of the original”, or “This certificate cancels and replaces the original bearing the number xxxx issued on xx.xx.xxxx.” ’;

‘The replacement shall bear the same number, if possible, and the same date of validity as the original document, and shall include, in box 23, one of the following statements: “This certificate is a true copy of the original.”, or “This certificate cancels and replaces the original bearing the number xxxx issued on xx.xx.xxxx.” ’;

‘4.   By way of derogation from paragraphs 2 and 3, the export or re-export of the items listed in points (a) to (f) of Article 57(5) shall not require the presentation of a (re-)export document.’;

‘6.   The specimens referred to in Articles 64 and 65 shall be marked in accordance with the method approved or recommended by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention for the specimens concerned and, in particular, the containers of caviar referred to in Articles 57(5)(a), 64(1)(g), 64(2) and 65(3) shall be individually marked by means of non-reusable labels affixed to each primary container. Where the non-reusable label does not seal the primary container, the caviar shall be packaged in such a manner as to permit visual evidence of any opening of the container.

Licensed processing and (re-)packaging plants shall be required to maintain adequate records of the quantities of caviar imported, exported, re-exported, produced in situ or stored, as appropriate. These records must be available for inspection by the management authority in the relevant Member State. A unique registration code shall be attributed to each such processing or (re-)packaging plant by that management authority. The list of facilities licensed in accordance with this paragraph, as well as any changes thereto, shall be notified to the Secretariat of the Convention and to the Commission. For the purpose of this paragraph processing plants shall include caviar producing aquaculture operations.’;

‘Article 71 Rejection of applications for import permits following the establishment of restrictions’;

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following 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, 4 February 2008.

For the Commission Stavros DIMAS Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 61, 3.3.1997, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1332/2005 (OJ L 215, 19.8.2005, p. 1).

(2) OJ L 166, 19.6.2006, p. 1

(3) OJ L 253, 11.10.1993, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 214/2007 (OJ L 62, 1.3.2007, p. 6)