
Article 1 

1. Pursuant to Article 40 of Regulation (EC) No 376/2008, at the request of the titular holder, within one month after entry into force of this regulation, for the import licences issued in the tariff rate quota period 2007/08 under the Regulations (EC) No 964/2007 and (EC) No 1002/2007, or the tariff rate quota period 2008 under the Regulations (EC) No 2058/96, (EC) No 327/98, (EC) No 955/2005, (EC) No 1964/2006 and (EC) No 1529/2007, the obligation to import shall be cancelled and the securities shall be released for the quantities not used, by the competent authorities of the Member States.
2. The measure provided for in paragraph 1 shall only apply in cases where the titular holder invokes rules imposed by a third country which are considered by the competent authorities of the Member State to constitute force majeure in accordance with Articles 39 and 40 of Regulation (EC) No 376/2008. The titular holder shall demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the competent authorities that he was unable to import owing to the introduction by third countries of formal export bans or measures with equivalent effect, on which a reasonably prudent trader in the rice sector could not have anticipated the introduction of these measures at the time of applying for the import licence, and that the titular holder made all reasonable efforts to use the import licence during the period of validity.
Article 2 
Before 31 January 2009 the Member States shall report to the Commission the measures taken in application of Article 1(2) of this regulation.
The notifications shall be made by electronic means. The form and content of the notifications shall be defined on the basis of models made available by the Commission to the Member States.
Article 3 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Brussels, 6 November 2008.
For the Commission
Mariann FISCHER BOEL
Member of the Commission