No L 362/16 Official Journal of the European Communities 27.12. 90 COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3648/90 of 11 December 1990 laying down general rules for implementing the Act of the Accession of Spain and Portugal as regards the compensation mechanism on imports of fruit and vegetables originating in Portugal \ 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 234 (2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas Article 318 of the Act of Accession provides that from the beginning of the second stage of the transitional period for Portugal a compensation mechanism is to be introduced for imports into the Community, as constituted on 31 December 1985, hereinafter called the ‘Community of Ter’, of fruit and vegetables for which a reference price is fixed with regard to third countries, according to Article 27 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72 of 18 May 1972 on the common organization of the market in fruit and vegetables (1), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1193/90 (2); 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 which are 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 Portuguese 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 concern a significant proportion of the goods presented on the markets; whereas the nature of the rates and the quantity of products to be taken into consideration for calculating the Portuguese offer price should therefore be specified; Whereas, where the offer price of the Portuguese product is lower than the Community offer price, compensation is to (1) O] No L 118, 20. 5. 1972, p. 1. (2) O] No L 119, 11. 5. 1990, p. 43. be effected by levying a corrective amount in accordance with Article 318 (1) (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 Portuguese products are not subject to more stringent arrangements than those applying to products originating in third countries, provision should be made that a decision to fix a corrective amount or to discontinue it 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 318 (1) (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 1991 to the end of the 1990/91 marketing year, it shall be fixed before 1 January 1991. 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 packaging and preparation. When the average of prices recorded on each representative 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 318 (1) (a) of the Act of Accession may be calculated on a flat-rate basis. :