27.7.2007 Official Journal of the European Union L 1953 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 883/2007 of 26 July 2007 amending Regulation (EC) No 824/2000 establishing procedures for the taking-over of cereals by intervention agencies and laying down methods of analysis for determining the quality of cereals THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1784/2003 of 29 September 2003 on the common organisation of the market in cereals (1), and in particular Article 6 thereof, Whereas: Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1784/2003, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 735/2007, limits the quantities of maize which may be bought in by inter- vention agencies throughout the Community to a total of 1500 000 tonnes in the 2007/08 marketing year, 700 000 tonnes in the 2008/09 marketing year and 0 tonnes from the 2009/10 marketing year onwards. To ensure the satisfactory management of the system for intervention buying-in of maize, and to give economic operators in all Member States access to the intervention system under equivalent conditions, detailed procedures should be laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 824/2000 (?) specific to the award of the quantities of maize eligible for intervention. To this end, a mechanism should be introduced for the award of those quantities, covering the periods of the marketing year in which operators may submit offers, giving them sufficient time to submit their offers and allowing a uniform award coefficient to be fixed for all offerers where the quantities offered exceed those available. Provision should therefore be made for the offers to be examined in two periods, and timetables should be laid down for the submission of offers for maize and for deliveries and the associated take-overs. Taking into account the periods for intervention buying- in laid down in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1784/2003, and to ensure equivalent treatment of operators, provision should be made for a first period () OJ L 270, 21.10.2003, p. 78. Regulation as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 735/2007 (O] L 169, 29.6.2007, p. 6). () OJ L 100, 20.4.2000, p. 31. Regulation as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 1572/2006 (O] L 290, 20.10.2006, p. 29). for the submission of offers for maize running from 1 August in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, from 1 December in Sweden and from 1 November in the other Member States, with 31 December as the last day for the submission of offers in all Member States. At the end of this first period the Commission will be obliged, where appropriate, to fix an award coefficient for the admissible offers submitted during this first period and to close the intervention for the remainder of the marketing year where the quantities offered exceed the quantity laid down in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1784/2003. To avoid placing administrative and financial burdens on the intervention agencies and on operators by requiring securities to be lodged which could prove unnecessary in the absence of quantities to be awarded, provision should be made for a break in the submission of offers between 1 January and the date of publication in the Official Journal of the European Union of the quantity remaining available for intervention in the second period. Given the time needed to fix the award coefficient for the first period where necessary, the second period for the submission of offers should commence on the day following the date of publication in the Official Journal of the European Union of the quantity remaining available for intervention, this being the first day for the submission of offers in all Member States. In this second period, the acceptance of offers should take place once a week, starting the first Friday following the publication of that quantity, on the basis of offers submitted by operators by 12.00 (Brussels time) on the Friday at the latest. Each week, by Wednesday at the latest, the Commission should post on its Internet site information for operators as to the remaining quantity available for intervention. Where the quantity laid down in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 17842003 is exceeded, the Commission should fix and publish an award coefficient and close the intervention for the marketing year in question. In view of the intervention buying-in periods provided for in Article 5(2) of Regu- lation (EC) No 1784/2003, the second period for the submission of offers should in any case end at the latest by 30 April in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, 30 June in Sweden and 31 May in the other Member States. To allow sound management of the award mechanism, it should be laid down that offers for maize may not be altered or withdrawn. Moreover, to ensure that offers are genuine, they should be subject to the lodging of a security, and the terms for checking that offers are genuine and for releasing the security should be laid down. To this end, this check should follow the same