No L 156/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 25. 6. 77 \ COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1358/77 of 20 June 1977 laying down general rules for offsetting storage costs for sugar and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 750/68 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/74 of 19 December 1974 cn the common organi- zation of the market in sugar(!), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1110/77 (), and in particular Article 8 (2) (a) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 750/68 of 18 June 1968 laying down general rules for offsetting storage costs for sugar (%), as last amended by Regula- tion (EEC) No 152/71 (%), has been amended on several occasions; whereas, moreover, these general rules must be extended to cover preferential sugar with effect from the 1977/78 sugar marketing year; whereas, therefore, these general rules should be adapted and supplemented ; Whereas Article 8 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3330/74 provides for the reimbursement at a flat rate of storage costs for certain sugars ; Whereas this flat-rate reimbursement is financed by levies ; whereas, therefore, the principle to be observed when the amounts of these levies are being fixed should be that total reimbursements made should equal total levies charged ; Whereas the reimbursement system is confined to sugar manufactured from beet or cane harvested within the Community and to preferential sugar; whereas control is needed to ensure that this rule is observed ; Whereas intervention agencies usually find it neces- sary to store the sugar which they have bought and should therefore be entitled to reimbursement; whereas, however, given the special position of inter- vention agencies, the period for which a reimburse- ment is granted should be limited ; Whereas reimbursement cannot be granted unless some measure of control is possible and warehouses must therefore be officially approved; whereas, for (') OJ No L 359, 31. 12. 1974, p. 1. () OJ No L 134, 28 5. 1977, p. I. (}) OJ No L 137, 21. 6. 1968, p. 4. () OJ No L 22, 28. 1. 1971, p. 1. this reason, reimbursement should normally be made by the Member State in whose territory the sugar is stored ; Whereas the calculation of the reimbursement should be based on periods for which the movement of stocks can be checked; Whereas particular measures may be needed to deal with the special situation of sugar in transit at the beginning of a month ; whereas such measures should be adopted in the same way as the rules required for the application of this Regulation, namely in accor- dance with the prodcedure laid down in Article 36 of Regulation (EEC) No 3330/74; Whereas the purpose of the reimbursement is to offset storage costs necessarily incurred ; whereas, therefore, when the amount of the reimbursement is being fixed the main charges included in storage costs must be taken into account; Whereas effective control of manufacturing can best be exercised when the sugar is being marketed ; -whereas, therefore, the levy should be collected from the manufacturer at the time of marketing; Whereas a levy should be collected at the time of importation in the case of sugar imported on preferen- tial terms and marketed in the natural state, and at the time of refining in the case of other preferential sugar ; Whereas, since some time must elapse before the exact amount of the levies can be established, these amounts must therefore be based on forecasts which must be adjusted in the light of results for previous marketing years, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION : Article 1 Reimbursement of storage costs in respect of the sugar or the syrups referred to in the first and second sub- paragraphs of Article 8 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3330/74 shall be made, in principle by the Member State on whose territory the products are stored, within a period to be specified.