L 150/28 Official Journal of the European Union 10.6.2008 DIRECTIVES COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/55/EC of 26 May 2008 on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to certain levies, duties, taxes and other (Codified version) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, measures 3) Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 93 and 94 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament ('), () Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (?), Whereas: (1) Council Directive 76/308/EEC of 15 March 1976 on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to certain levies, duties, taxes and other measures (?) has been substantially amended several times (*). In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Directive should be codified. The fact that national provisions relating to recovery are applicable only within national territories is in itself an obstacle to the functioning of the internal market. This situation prevents Community rules from being fully and fairly applied, particularly in the area of the common agricultural policy, and facilitates fraudulent operations. (1) Opinion of 19 June 2007 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () O] C 93, 27.4.2007, p. 15. () OJ L 73, 19.3.1976, p. 18. Directive as last amended by the 2003 Act of Accession. The original title of the Directive is ‘Council Directive 76/308/EEC of 15 March 1976 on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims resulting from operations forming part of the system of financing the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, and of the agricultural levies and customs duties’. 7) It was amended by Directive 79/1071/EEC (O] L 331, 27.12.1979, p. 10), by Directive 92/12/EEC (O] L 76, 23.3.1992, p. 1) and Directive 2001/44/EC (O] L 175, 28.6.2001, p. 17). () See Annex I, Parts A and B. It is necessary to meet the threat to the financial interests of the Community and the Member States and to the internal market posed by the development of fraud so as to safeguard better the competitiveness and fiscal neutrality of the internal market. It is therefore necessary to adopt common rules on mutual assistance for recovery. These rules should apply to the recovery of claims resulting from the various measures which form part of the system of total or partial financing of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and the European Agri- cultural Fund for Rural Development, to the recovery of levies and other duties and import and export duties, valued added tax and harmonised excise duties (manufactured tobacco, alcohol and alcoholic beverages and mineral oils), as well as of taxes on income, on capital and on insurance premiums. They should also apply to the recovery of interest, administrative penalties and fines, with the exclusion of any sanction of a criminal nature, and costs incidental to such claims. Mutual assistance should consist of the following: the requested authority should on the one hand supply the applicant authority with the information which the latter needs in order to recover claims arising in the Member State in which it is situated and notify the debtor of all instruments relating to such claims emanating from that Member State, and on the other hand it should recover, at the request of the applicant authority, the claims arising in the Member State in which the latter is situated. These different forms of assistance should be afforded by the requested authority in compliance with the laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing such matters in the Member State in which it is situated.