Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:79
Date: 2000-02-10
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Agricultural structures
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Integrated administration and control 
system for certain aid schemes — Computerised database of a Member State — 
Disclosure by the competent authority to a new operator of information relating to the 
data provided by a previous applicant for compensatory payments — Conditions 
(Council Regulation No 3508/92, Arts 3(1) and 9) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-369/98 
2. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Integrated administration and control 
system for certain aid schemes — Refusal by the competent authority to disclose the 
information necessary to ensure the proper submission of an application for aid — 
Imposition of penalties on the basis of undisclosed information — Not permissible 
(Commission Regulation No 3887/92, Art. 9) 
1. Articles 3(1) and 9 of Regulation 
No 3508/92 establishing an integrated 
administration and control system for 
certain Community aid schemes, cou­
pled with the general principles of 
Community law, allow the competent 
authorities, after balancing the respec­
tive interests of the persons concerned, 
to disclose data relating to crops sown 
during the preceding years, and which 
have been supplied by or on behalf of a 
former claimant for payment under the 
arable area payment scheme, to a new 
farmer who has need of those data in 
order to be able to apply for such 
payments in respect of the same fields 
and who is unable otherwise to obtain 
them. 
(see para. 39 and operative part 1) 
2. In the event of refusal to disclose the 
information necessary to ensure that an 
application for aid is valid, the compe­
tent authority cannot, on the basis of 
the information which it did not pro­
vide to the applicant at the time of the 
request for information, impose penal­
ties on him under Article 9 of Regula­
tion No 3887/92 laying down detailed 
rules for applying the integrated 
administration and control system for 
certain Community aid schemes. 
(see para. 47 and operative part 2) 
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