The Commission shall every two years submit to the council for approval proposals as to the  tonnage which may be subsidized.

Italy

Article 27

1. The Sulcis mines shall be entitled to equalization payments under Article 25 to enable them  to meet competition in the common market pending completion of the plant installation  operations now in progress; the Commission shall periodically determine the amount of aid  required, but outside aid may not be continued for more than two years.

2. In view of the special position of the Italian coking plants, the Commission is empowered  to authorize the Italian Government to continue, to the necessary extent during the transitional  period defined in Article 1 of this Convention, to charge customs duties on coke from other  Member States; however, in the first year of the transitional period these may not exceed the  rates of duty under Presidential Decree No 442 of 7 July 1950, this ceiling being reduced by  10% in the second year, 25% in the third, 45% in the fourth and 70% in the fifth, and the  duties being abolished altogether at the end of the transitional period.

France

Article 28

1. It is agreed that coal production in the French mines:

• Need not be reduced each year by more than one million metric tons as compared with  the level of the preceding year if total Community production is the same or is above the  level of the preceding year; or,
• If total Community production is below the level of the preceding year, need not be  lower than the figure obtained by applying to the level of French production in the  preceding year less one million metric tons the same coefficient of decrease as that in total  Community production.

2. To ensure that shifts in production levels are kept within these limits, the arrangements  referred to in Article 24 of this Convention may be supplemented by the exceptional  expedient of a special levy imposed by the Commission on increases in the net deliveries  from other collieries as shown in French customs statistics, to the extent that these increases  represent shifts in production levels.

Accordingly, the levy shall be chargeable on the amounts by which net deliveries in each  period exceed those in 1950, up to the amount of the decrease in the coal production of  French mines since 1950 or, if total Community production is also down, to the figure  obtained by applying to that amount the same coefficient of decrease as that in total Community production. The special levy shall be fixed at a maximum of 10% of the  producers' receipts on the amounts in question and shall be used, in agreement with the  Commission, to reduce, in the appropriate zones, the price for certain coals produced by the  French mines.

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