Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2012)403 - Protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein (Recast)

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dossier COM(2012)403 - Protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein (Recast).
source COM(2012)403 EN
date 19-07-2012
1. On 1 April 1987 the Commission decided to instruct its staff that all acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement and that departments should endeavour to codify at even shorter intervals the texts for which they are responsible, to ensure that their provisions are clear and readily understandable.

2. The codification of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein has been initiated by the Commission. The new Regulation was to have superseded the various acts incorporated in it.

3. In the meantime the Lisbon Treaty entered into force. Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) allows the legislator to delegate to the Commission the power to adopt non-legislative acts of general application to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of a legislative act. Article 291 of the TFEU allows the legislator to confer implementing powers on the Commission where uniform conditions for implementing legally binding Union acts are needed. Acts adopted by the Commission in accordance with those Articles are referred to in the terminology used by the TFEU as 'delegated acts' (Article 290(3)) and as 'implementing acts' (Article 291(4)), respectively.

4. Regulation (EC) No 338/97 contains provisions for which such a delegation of power or such a conferral of implementing powers would be opportune. It is therefore appropriate to transform the codification of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 into a recast in order to incorporate the necessary amendments.

5. The recast proposal was drawn up on the basis of a preliminary consolidation, in 22 official languages, of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 and the instruments amending it, carried out by the Publications Office of the European Union, by means of a data-processing system. Where the Articles have been given new numbers, the correlation between the old and the new numbers is shown in a table set out in Annex III to the recast Regulation.

ê 338/97 (adapted)