L77/12 Official Journal of the European Union 13.3.2004 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 461/2004 of 8 March 2004 amending Regulation (EC) No 384/96 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Community and Regulation (EC) No 2026/97 on protection against subsidised imports from countries not members of the European Community THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular Article 133 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas: 4 By Regulation (EC) No 384/96 () (the Basic Anti- dumping Regulation) and Regulation (EC) No 2026/ 97 (3 (the Basic Anti-subsidy Regulation) the Council adopted common rules for protection against dumped, and, respectively, subsidised imports from countries which are not members of the European Communities (the Basic Anti-Dumping Regulation and the Basic Anti- Subsidy Regulation are hereinafter jointly referred to as the Basic Regulations). The Basic Regulations provide, for the imposition of definitive anti-dumping and countervailing measures, a procedure under which the Council, acting by simple majority on a proposal by the Commission, imposes definitive measures. In the light of recent experience of the application of the Basic Regulations and in order to preserve the transpar- ency and efficiency of the trade defence instruments, it is considered necessary to revisit the way Community insti- tutions work together in the process of the imposition of definitive anti-dumping and countervailing measures. Under the current approach, a Commission proposal will only be adopted if a simple majority of Member (") OJ L 56, 6.3.1996, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1972/2002 (O] L 305, 7.11.2002, p. 1). () OJ L 288, 21.10.1997, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 1973/2002 (O] L 305, 7.11.2002, p. 4). States votes in favour of such a proposal. This has the effect that abstentions count effectively against the Commission proposal. This in turn can result in a situa- tion where a Commission proposal will not be adopted by the Council due to the number of abstentions. In order to address this problem effectively, the Basic Regulations have to be amended by requiring a simple majority of Member States in the Council to reject a Commission proposal for imposing definitive measures. Under this procedure, measures shall be adopted by the Council unless the Council decides by a simple majority to reject the proposal, within a period of one month after submission of the proposal by the Commission. It is expedient to apply such a procedure in order to facilitate the Community's decision-making process without changing the respective roles of the Commission and the Council in the application of the Basic Regula- tions, and without implying any changes for the deci- sion-making procedures in other areas of the common commercial policy or other sectors. For reasons of consistent application of decision-making procedures under the Basic Regulations, the procedures for other decisions by the Council under the Basic Regu- lations which provide essentially the same procedure as for the imposition of definitive measures should be aligned as well. Accordingly, the above approach should be adopted also for the procedures regarding reviews, reinvestigation, circumvention and suspension of measures. The Basic Anti-dumping Regulation establishes manda- tory time limits for the completion of investigation procedures initiated pursuant to Article 5(9) of the Basic Anti-dumping Regulation while review investigations, initiated pursuant to Articles 11(2), (3) and (4) and rein- vestigations pursuant to Article 12 of the Basic Anti- dumping Regulation, are subject to an indicative time limit only.