18. 11. 97 Official Journal of the European Communities L 314/13 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2283/97 of 17 November 1997 amending Regulation (EC) No 1466/95 laying down special detailed rules of application for export refunds on milk and milk products and Regulation (EEC) No 210/69 on communications between Member States and the Commission with regard to milk and milk products THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 of 27 June 1968 on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products ('), as last amended by Regula- tion (EC) No 1587/96 (%), and in particular Article 17 (14) thereof, Whereas Article 2a (2) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3665/87 (*), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2114/97 (¥, lays down rules for the use of export licences with advance fixing of the refund for the exportation of products with a 12-digit code other than that shown in Section 16 of the licence; whereas this provision becomes applicable in a specific sector only if product categories as referred to in Article 13a of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3719/88 (%), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1404/97 (%), or product groups as referred to in point (b} of the first subparagraph of Article 2a (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 3665/87 have been defined; Whereas for the milk and milk product sector, product categories are already defined in Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1466/95 (), as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 2179/97 (*); whereas these categories are those provided for in the Agreement on Agriculture in the GATT Agreements; whereas in the interests of sound management this use of categories should be retained and Atticle 2a (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 3665/87 applied on the basis only of defined product groups; Whereas in the milk sector refund rates are highly dif- ferentiated, notably according to fat content; whereas so that this arrangement will not be called into question while at the same time the proportionality objective of L 148, 28. 6. 1968, p. 13. L 206, 16. 8. 1996, p. 21. L 351, 14. 12. 1987, p. 1. L 295, 29. 10. 1997, p. 3. L 331, 2. 12. 1988, p. 1. L 194, 23. 7. 1997, p. S. L 144, 28. 6. 1995, p. 22. L 298, 1. 11. 1997, p. 67. 88828888 Article 2a (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 3665/87 is respected the product groups should be tightly circums- cribed and for certain products the validity of export licences should extend to products that in fat content are immediately adjacent to the product for which the refund was fixed in advance; Whereas Commission Regulation (EEC) No 210/69 (%), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 418/97 (*°), requires notification of information on applications for export licences and their use; whereas Regulation (EEC) No 210/69 should be amended to cover notification of the licence use introduced by this Regulation; Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Milk and Milk Products, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Regulation (EC) No 1466/95 is hereby amended as follows: 1. Article 3 is replaced by the following: Article 3 1. For the purposes of the Agreement on Agricul- ture included in the Uruguay Round GATT Agree- ments the four product categories are those set in Annex II 2. The second paragraph of Article 132 of Regula- tion (EEC) No 3719/88 shall not apply to the products indicated in Article 1 (1). 3. For the purposes of point (b) of the first subpara- graph of Article 2a (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 3665/87, and without prejudice to the application of Article 3a (3) below, the product groups shall be those set in Annex IIL}; () OJ L 28, 5. 2. 1969, p. 1. (%) OJ L 64, 5. 3. 1997, p. 3.