13. 12. 89 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 363/3 COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3709/89 of 4 December 1989 laying down general rules for implementing the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal as regards the compensation mechanism on imports of fruit and vegetables originating in Spain - THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to the Act of Accession of Spain- and Portugal, and in particular Article 89 (1) thereof, Having regard to the Commission proposal, Whereas Article 152 of the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act of Accession’ provides that from the beginning of the second phase of the transitional period for Spain a compensation mechanism is to be introduced on imports into the Community, as constituted on 31 December 1985, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Community of Ten’, for fruit and vegetables for which a reference price is fixed with -regard to third countries; Whereas among the measures necessary for implementing the mechanism, rules should be laid down in particular for recording the producer prices for products or varieties representative of the production marketed for the purpose of calculating the Community offer price; whereas it should be borne in mind that the prices listed concern products -packaged for ‘transportation ; Whereas for the purpose of determining the Spanish offer price calculated each marketing day on the basis of the representative rates recorded, the rates to be regarded as such should be defined; whereas in order to obtain a realistic overview of the market situation, the rates to be used should relate to a significant proportion of the goods presented on the markets; whereas consequently the nature of the rates and the quantity of products to be taken-into consideration for calculating the Spanish offer price should be specified ; Whereas where the offer price of the Spanish product is lower than the Community offer price, compensation is = to be achieved by levying a correcting amount in accordance with Article 152 (2) (d) and (e) of the Act of - Accession ; whereas in order to enable the compensation mechanism to operate satisfactorily under - sound conditions and to ensure that Spanish products are not subject to more stringent arrangements than those applying to products originating in third countries, provision should be made for the fixing or discontinuance of a correcting amount to be based on the prices recorded for several consecutive market days, and the method to be applied should be defined, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION : Article 1 1.. The Community offer price, referred to-in Article 152-(2) (a) of the Act of Accession, applicable to the whole Community of Ten, shall be fixed for each' marketing year or for each of the periods into which the year may be subdivided on the basis of seasonal price variations. It shall be fixed before the beginning of the marketing year. However, for the period from 1 January 1990 to the end of the 1989/90 marketing year, it shall be fixed before 1 January 1990. 2. The producer prices to be used for determining the Community. offer price shall be those for a home-grown product with defined commercial characteristics, recorded on the representative market or markets situated in the production areas where prices are lowest, for the products or varieties which represent a considerable proportion of production marketed for part of the year or throughout the year and which fall within quality class I and satisfy specified requirements as regards market preparation. When the average of prices recorded on each represen- tative market is being calculated, prices which could be "considered excessively high or excessively low in relation to normal price fluctuations on the market shall be disregarded. Moreover, if the average price for a Member State shows excessive variations with respect to normal price fluctuations, it shall not be taken into account. 3. The transport costs referred to in Article 152 (2) (a) _ of the Act of Accession may be calculated on a flat-rate basis. Article 2 For the purpose of calculating the Spanish offer price referred to in Article 152 (2) (b) of the Act of Accession,- the Commission shall, on the basis -of information supplied by Member States or data gathered by the Commission itself, regularly follow, for a product with defined commercial characteristics, the trend of average prices for products coming from Spain on all the