Common use of Import Licence Clause in Contracts

Import Licence. 1. The import into the Union of the cultural goods referred to in Part B of the Annex other than those referred to in Article 3(4) and (5) shall be subject to an import licence issued by the competent authority of the Member State in which the goods are placed under one of the customs procedures referred to in Article 2(1) c for the first time. 2. Import licences issued by the competent authorities of the Member States in accordance with this Regulation shall be valid throughout the Union. 3. The import licence shall not be construed to be evidence of licit provenance or ownership of the cultural goods concerned. 4. The holder of the goods shall apply for an import licence to the competent authority of the Member State referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article via the electronic system referred to in Article 9a. The application shall be accompanied by any supporting documents and information providing evidence that the cultural goods in question have been exported from the country where they were created or discovered in accordance with laws and regulations of that country or providing evidence of the absence of such laws and regulations at the time they were taken out of its territory. By derogation from the first subparagraph, the application may be accompanied instead by any supporting documents and information providing evidence that the cultural goods in question have been exported in accordance with the laws and regulations of the last country where they were located for a period of more than 5 years and for purposes other than temporary use, transit, re-export or transhipment, in the following cases: (a) the country where the cultural goods were created or discovered cannot be reliably determined or (b) the cultural goods left the country where they were created or discovered before 24 April 1972. 5. Evidence that the cultural goods in question have been exported in accordance with the laws and regulations according to paragraph 4 shall be provided in the form of export certificates or export licences insofar as the country in question has established such documents for the export of cultural heritage. 6. The competent authority shall verify whether the application is complete. It shall request any missing or additional information or document from the applicant within 21 days of receipt of the application. 7. The competent authority shall within 90 days of receipt of the complete application examine the application and decide to issue the import licence or reject the application. The competent authority shall reject the application where (a) it has information or reasonable grounds to believe that the cultural goods were removed from the territory of the country where the cultural goods were created or discovered in breach of its laws and regulations of that country; (b) the evidence required in paragraph 4 is not provided; (c) it has information or reasonable grounds to believe that the holder of the goods did not acquire them lawfully; or (d) it is informed that there are pending claims for return by the authorities of the country where the cultural goods were created or discovered. 8. In the event of rejection of the application, the administrative decision referred to in paragraph 7 shall be accompanied by a statement of reasons including information on the appeal procedure which is communicated to the applicant affected at the time it is issued. 9. When an application is made for an import licence relating to cultural goods for which such an application has been previously rejected, the applicant shall inform the competent authority to which the application is submitted of the previous rejection. 10. Where a Member State rejects an electronic application, that rejection as well as the grounds on which it was based shall be communicated to the other Member States and to the Commission via the electronic system referred to in Article 9a. 11. Member States shall designate without delay the public authorities competent to issue import licences in accordance with this Article. They shall communicate the details of those authorities as well as any changes in that respect to the Commission. The Commission shall publish the details of those competent authorities and any changes thereto in the 'C' series of the Official Journal of the European Union. 12. The Commission shall establish, by means of implementing acts, the template for and the format of the application for the import licence and possible supporting documents to prove licit provenance of the cultural goods in question as well as the procedural rules on the submission and processing of such an application. In establishing those elements, the Commission shall endeavour to achieve uniform application by competent authorities of the import licencing procedures. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 13.