L 198/26 Official Journal of the European Communities 21.7.2001 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1453/2001 of 28 June 2001 introducing specific measures for certain agricultural products for the Azores and Madeira and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1600/92 (Poseima) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 36, 37 and 299(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament (%), Whereas: By Decision 91/315/EEC (3 the Council adopted a programme of options specific to the remote and insular nature of Madeira and the Azores (Poseima) in accordance with the Community's policy of assistance for the outermost regions. The purpose of the programme is to facilitate the economic and social development of those regions and enable them to benefit from the advantages of the single market of which they are an integral part despite the objective factors leaving them geographically and economically isolated. The programme calls for the CAP to be applied in those regions and provides for special measures to be adopted, in particular to improve the conditions in which agricultural products are produced and marketed there and to mitigate the effects of their exceptional geographical ~situation and constraints as since recognised in Article 299(2) of the Treaty. The particular geographical situation of Madeira and the Azores imposes additional transport costs in supplying essential products for human consumption, for processing and as agricultural inputs. In addition, objective factors arising as a result of insularity impose further constraints on economic operators and producers in these islands that severely handicap their activities. These handicaps can be alleviated by lowering the price of these essential products. It is therefore appropriate to introduce specific supply arrangements to guarantee supply to these islands and compensate for the additional costs arising from their remoteness, insularity and outermost location. () Opinion delivered on 14 June 2001 (not yet published in the Official Journal). (3) OJ L 171, 29.6.1991, p. 10. G) To that end, notwithstanding Article 23 of the Treaty, imports of the products concerned from third countries should be exempt from the applicable import duties. To take account of their origin and the customs treatment accorded to them under the Community provisions, products which have entered the Community's customs territory under inward processing or customs warehousing arrangements should be considered as direct imports, for the purpose of granting the benefits of the specific supply arrangements. In order to achieve the goal of lowering prices in these regions and mitigating the additional costs of their remoteness, insularity and outermost location while maintaining the competitiveness of Community products, aid should be granted for the supply to the islands of products of Community origin. Such aid should take account of the additional cost of transport to Madeira and the Azores and the prices applied to exports to third countries and, in the case of agricultural inputs and products intended for processing, the additional costs of insularity and outermost location. Since the quantities covered by the specific supply arrangements are limited to the supply requirements of these regions, those arrangements do not impair the proper functioning of the internal market. In addition, the economic advantages of the specific supply arrangements should not provoke deflections of trade in the  products  concerned.  Re-dispatching  or re-exportation of those products from the Azores and Madeira should therefore be prohibited. However, this prohibition does not apply to trade flows between the regions of Madeira and the Azores. Nor does it apply, where processing is concerned, subject to certain conditions, to exports to third countries to promote regional trade or to traditional consignments to the rest of the Community. The economic advantages of the specific supply arrangements should be passed on so as to reduce production costs and bring down prices throughout the production and distribution chain to the end user, culminating in lower consumer prices. They should therefore be granted only on condition that they are actually passed on, and monitoring must be carried out to that end. The area aid scheme for fruit and edible vegetables, roots and tubers, flowers and live plants has proved unsuitable, especially because of the slowness and