With respect to the present report, Directive 94/57 establishes a system of Community-wide recognition of survey organisations, i.e. organisations that, in compliance with the international conventions, may be authorised to a various extent to inspect ships and issue the relevant safety certificates on behalf of the Member States.

A Co-ordination Centre is an undertaking belonging to a multinational group providing services to other members of the group. Under a 10-year license granted by the tax authorities, the taxable revenues of a Co-ordination Centre are determined according to the so-called "cost-plus" method. The cost plus method is normally aimed at avoiding double taxation and limiting tax avoidance. In the cost plus method, the taxable profit is calculated as a percentage of the aggregated operating costs. Although this method of taxation does not constitute State aid per se, its practical application may well give rise to State aid. With respect to the Belgian scheme, the Commission ...[+++] has concluded that the Belgian authorities apply the cost-plus method in a way that gives raise to State aid. Firstly, Belgium systematically uses a default mark-up rate of 8% without verifying whether this rate reflects the economic reality of the services provided by the Co-ordination Centres. Secondly, the way in which the expenditure of the Centre is calculated excludes significant operating cost items of the Centre. Thirdly, the Belgian Co-ordination Centres enjoyed additional tax advantages such as a withholding exemption on income distributions and a real-estate property tax exemption. The benefits reduce the amount of taxable profits and thus grants an advantage not justified under the EU State aid rules.

This system of single supervision and authorisation is made possible by the level of harmonisation attained by Community banking legislation, in particular as regards prudential supervision.

(e) temporary withdrawal of the approval or recognition necessary for participation in a Community aid scheme;

This proposal aims to prevent the illicit use of drug precursors by intensifying the import and export requirements for these chemicals, by extending monitoring requirements with regard to Community operators facilitating trade between third countries, by introducing a Community approach with regard to procedures for granting licences and by strengthening monitoring requirements governing suspensive customs procedures.

At present, the Community rules provide for specific penalties only in a very limited number of cases, e.g. the withdrawal of recognition from producers' organizations, exclusion from the intervention scheme during the following marketing year, withdrawal of approval for processors, the loss of securities or the payment of fines.