Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:175
Date: 2002-03-14
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Environment;Agricultural structures
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Acts of the institutions — Choice of legal basis — Criteria — Community measure 
having a twofold purpose — Possibility of identifying a predominant purpose — Use 
of the sole legal basis corresponding to the main purpose 
(EC Treaty, Art. 42 (now Art. 36 EC) and Arts 43 and 130s (now, after amendment, 
Arts 37 EC and 175 EC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-336/00 
2. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Promotion of production methods 
compatible with environmental requirements — Regulation No 2078/92 — Com­
mission approval of a part-financed national aid programme — Scope 
(Council Regulation No 2078/92, Art. 7(2)) 
3. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Fromotion of production methods 
compatible with environmental requirements — Regulation No 2078/92 — Com­
mission decision approving a part-financed national aid programme — Decision 
addressed exclusively to the Member State concerned — Binding character for 
agricultural and rural operators conditional on compliance with information require­
ments laid down in national law 
(Council Regulation No 2078/92, Arts 3(3)(f) and 7) 
4. Own resources of the European Communities — Aid part-financed by the Community 
which has been unduly paid — No recovery — Whether permissible — Conditions 
5. Acts of the institutions — Regulations — Enforcement by the Member States — 
National aid programme part-financed by the Community within the meaning of 
Regulation No 2078/92 — Absence of common rules — Use of rules as to procedure 
and form laid down by domestic law — Restrictions — Scope and effectiveness of 
Community law 
(Council Regulation No 2078/92, Art. 3(1)) 
1. If examination of a Community act 
shows that it has a twofold purpose or 
twofold component and if one of these 
is identifiable as main or predominant, 
whereas the other is merely incidental, 
the act must be founded on a sole legal 
basis, that is, the one required by the 
main or predominant purpose or com­
ponent. 
That is why, since the main purpose of 
the support measures laid down by 
Regulation No 2078/92 on agricultural 
production methods compatible with 
the requirements of the protection of 
the environment and the maintenance 
of the countryside was to regulate the 
production of agricultural products 
within the meaning of Annex II to the 
Treaty, in order to promote the transi­
tion from intensive cultivation to a 
more extensive cultivation, of better 
quality, with farmers being compen­
sated for the financial consequences of 
this by the granting of aid, it should 
have been adopted on the sole legal 
basis of Article 42 of the Treaty (now 
Article 36 EC) and Article 43 of the 
Treaty (now, after amendment, 
Article 37 EC). The fact that the regu­
lation was of a nature such as to 
promote more environmentally-
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friendly forms of production — which 
is certainly a genuine objective, but an 
ancillary one, of the common agricul­
tural policy — cannot in itself justify 
the fact that Article 130s of the Treaty 
(now, after amendment, Article 175 
EC) was also retained as a legal basis. 
(see paras 31, 35-36) 
2. Article 7(2) of Regulation No 2078/92 
on agricultural production methods 
compatible with the requirements of 
the protection of the environment and 
the maintenance of the countryside 
must be interpreted as meaning that a 
Commission decision approving a 
national aid programme part-financed 
by the Community also encompasses 
its content, without, however, confer­
ring on that programme the nature of 
an act of Community law. 
In the case where an aid contract 
between a farmer and the competent 
national authority is incompatible with 
the approved programme, it is for the 
national courts to draw the appropriate 
inferences from this in regard to 
national law, by taking account of the 
relevant Community law in applying 
national law. 
(see paras 40-41, operative part 2) 
3. A Commission decision approving a 
national aid programme part-financed 
by the Community, as referred to in 
Article 7 of Regulation No 2078/92 on 
agricultural production methods com­
patible with the requirements of the 
protection of the environment and the 
maintenance of the countryside, is 
addressed only to the Member State 
concerned. It is for the national courts 
to decide, in the light of national law, 
whether the publicity given to that 
programme enabled it to become bind­
ing on agricultural and rural operators, 
in particular by ensuring compliance 
with the requirement of appropriate 
i n f o r m a t i o n l a id d o w n in 
Article 3(3)(f) of that regulation. 
(see para. 48, operative part 3) 
4. Although Article 8(1) of Regulation 
No 729/70 on the financing of the 
common agricultural policy provided 
that the Member States, in accordance 
with national provisions laid down by 
law, regulation or administrative 
action, were to take the measures 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-336/00 
necessary to recover sums lost as a 
result of irregularities or negligence, 
Community law does not preclude the 
application of the principles of the 
protection of legitimate expectations 
and legal certainty in order to prevent 
the recovery of aid part-financed by the 
Community which has been wrongly 
paid, provided that the interest of the 
Community is also taken into consider­
ation. The application of the principle 
of the protection of legitimate expec­
tations assumes that the good faith of 
the beneficiary of the aid in question is 
established. 
(see paras 54, 59, operative part 4) 
5. In so far as Community law, including 
its general principles, does not contain 
common rules, implementation of 
Community legislation by the compet­
ent national authorities must follow the 
rules as to procedure and form laid 
down by the law of the Member State 
concerned. However, recourse to rules 
of national law is possible only in so far 
as is necessary for the implementation 
of provisions of Community law and in 
so far as the application of those rules 
of national law does not jeopardise the 
scope and effectiveness of that Com­
munity law, including its general prin­
ciples. It is therefore open to Member 
States to implement national aid pro­
grammes part-financed by the Commu­
nity within the meaning of Article 3(1) 
of Regulation No 2078/92 on agricul­
tural production methods compatible 
with the requirements of the protection 
of the environment and the mainten­
ance of the countryside by private-
sector measures or by forms of State 
action, in so far as the national meas­
ures in question do not affect the scope 
and effectiveness of Community law. 
(see paras 61, 64, operative part 5) 
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