No L 118/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 15. 5. %6 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 875/96 of 14 May 1996 amending Regulation (EEC) No 1442/93 laying down detailed rules for the application of the arrangements for importing bananas into the Community (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 of 13 February 1993 on the common organization of the market in bananas ('), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 3290/94 (), and in particular Article 20 thereof, Whereas pursuant to Article 9 (3) of Commission Regula- tion (EEC) No 1442/93 (), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1164/95(%), a percentage reduction is to be applied to all licence applications submitted for a given origin where the sum of the quantities requested appreci- ably exceeds the indicative quantity fixed for the quarter in question for that origin; whereas to protect the interests of small operators dealing only with a given origin, the reduction does not apply to applications relating to a quantity of not more than 150 tonnes provided that the quantity available for the current year has not been exhausted; whereas to avoid abuse of the measure and the submission of an unjustified number of such applications a threshold, by origin, beyond which the reduction coeffi- cient becomes applicable should be set; whereas, nonethe- less, such a threshold should not be applicable to applica- tions submitted by new operators in Category C; Whereas in fact each Category C operator at present obtains import rights against the tariff quota for a small annual quantity that he can if he wishes use up in full in a single licence application; whereas it therefore appears appropriate not to subject Category C licence applications to a percentage reduction provided that the quota share set for the origin concerned is not exceeded; Whereas Articles 10 (3) and 17 (4) of Regulation (EEC) No 1442/93 lay down conditions for the issue of realloca- tion licences for unused quantities under licences issued for a previous quarter of the same year; whereas the deter- () OJ No L 47, 25. 2. 1993, p. 1. () OJ No L 349, 31. 12. 1994, p. 105. () OJ No L 142, 12. 6. 1993, p. 6. () OJ No L 117, 24. 5. 1995, p. 14. mination of traditional quantities for individual ACP countries and of quota shares for certain countries or groups of supplying countries under the framework agree- ment on bananas concluded in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations leads to the setting of percentage reductions by origin; whereas sound manage- ment of these quantities requires the reallocation licences be applied for and issued for the same origin as the initial licence unused in whole or in part; Whereas the requirements of quarterly management of the quota shares assigned individually by Regulation (EEC) No 404/93 to each of the Windward Islands are causing major difficulties for these ACP producer regions owing to their production and marketing conditions and their difficulty in organizing regular periodic consign- ments; whereas there is justification for acceding to their request that provision be made for issuing import licences for bananas originating in the Windward Islands; whereas, therefore, the indicative quantities fixed each quarter pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EEC) No 1442/93 should be fixed for the Windward Islands as a whole; whereas compliance with the quota shares of each of these ACP states should be ensured on an annual basis by checking the actual origin of the goods at the time of their release for free circulation and by monitoring the certificates of origin issued by authorities in the supplying regions; Whereas experience also shows that more flexibility should be exercised in management of the quarterly quantities fixed for imports of traditional ACP quantities, in line with the procedures followed in connection with the tariff quota provided for in Article 18 of Regulation {EEC) No 404/93; Whereas, having regard to the multiplicity of communica- tions between the Commission and the Member States and the checking, where appropriate, of certain informa- tion, the time limit set each quarter for the issue of import licences should be extended by a few days; Whereas the amount of the security against the import licence should be adjusted to take account of the change in the ecu value of certain prices and amounts made to neutralize the effects of abolishing the correction factor