Brussels, 28/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has confirmed that it has begun several investigations into Community imports of sugar coming from a number of countries in the Balkans. OLAF has indicated that there has been massive increases in quantities of sugar imported into the EU by these countries (more than 250,000 tons in 2001-2002) and is particularly interested in deliveries of Croatian sugar into Greece, which contains a mixture of beetroot sugar and sugar cane, when in fact Croatia does not cultivate sugar cane. The affair is being looked into by the Greek legal authorities who are working with OLAF in the Thessaloniki courts.
OLAF has explained that this situation can be explained by the difficulties experienced in applying the September 2000 regulation, allowing the countries in question to export their goods (benefiting from preferential treatment) to the European market. In this context, the Commission decided on 30 April (following an OLAF enquiry) to suspend for an initial three month period the preferential system for sugar granted to Serbia and Montenegro (EUROPE 1 May 2003 p 15). Last March, the Commission decided to suspend certain export discounts for sugar exports to western Balkan countries. Already in June 2002, the Commission had published in the Official Journal, a warning to importers, informing operators that there were doubts as to the correct application of preferential arrangements on sugar that had been declared as coming from this region.