Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1997:304
Date: 1997-06-17
Language of the case: Swedish
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Accession;Agriculture and Fisheries;Sugar
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Sweden

Summary of the Judgment 
Accession of new Member States to the Communities — Austria — Finland — Sweden — Agri­
culture — Common organization of the markets — Sugar — National levy on sugar in stock on 
the eve of accession — Whether permissible 
(EC Treaty, Arts 39 and 40; 1994 Act of Accession, Arts 137(2) and 145(2); Council Regulation 
No 1785/81; Commission ReguUtion No 3300/94) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-27/96 
Articles 137(2) and 145(2) of the 1994 Act of 
Accession, Articles 39 and 40 of the Treaty, 
Regulation N o 1785/81 on the common 
organization of the markets in the sugar sec­
tor and Regulation N o 3300/94 laying down 
transitional measures in the sugar sector fol­
lowing the accession of Austria, Finland and 
Sweden do not preclude a State acceding to 
the European Union from adopting, on the 
eve of its accession, legislation introducing a 
levy on sugar being then held in stock within 
that State. 
Although Regulation No 3300/94 applied 
the higher Community selling price to quan­
tities of sugar produced in the acceding 
States during the 1994/95 marketing year — 
much of which had been disposed of before 
the date of accession — without requiring, 
by way of consideration, contributions to 
the self-financing arrangements for the sec­
tor, such a concession on the part of the 
Community with regard to a quantity of 
sugar regarded as marginal in Community 
terms does not mean that the Community 
provisions prohibited the adoption of legisla­
tion designed to eliminate, before accession, 
the profit which Swedish sugar producers 
expected to gain from the fact of accession 
and the resulting difference in selling price, 
so long as such legislation does not interfere 
with the functioning of the mechanisms for 
the common organization of the markets in 
the sugar sector. 
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