Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:228
Date: 2000-05-11
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Support for producers of certain 
arable crops — Area-linked aid for arable crops and set-aside — Set-aside — Area 
cultivated in the previous year with a view to harvest — Meaning — Land sown with 
grass, the latter being subsequently cut and used for silage — Included 
(Council Regulation No 1765/92; Commission Regulation No 762/94, Art. 2, first 
para.) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-372/98 
2. Preliminary rulings — Interpretation — Temporal effects of judgments ruling on 
interpretation — Retroactive effect — Limits — Legal certainty — Power of assess­
ment of the Court 
(EC Treaty, Art. 177 (now Art. 234 EC)) 
1. In the context of the support system for 
the producers of certain arable crops, 
the first paragraph of Article 2 of 
Regulation No 762/94 laying down 
detailed rules for applying the set-aside 
scheme must be interpreted as meaning 
that, in relation to a producer' obliga­
tion to take out of production 'an area 
which has been cultivated in the pre­
vious year with a view to a harvest', 
that expression covers land previously 
under grass that has subsequently been 
cut and used for silage. 
(see para. 38 and operative part) 
2. It is only exceptionally that the Court 
may, in application of a general prin­
ciple of legal certainty inherent in the 
Community legal order, be moved to 
restrict for any person concerned the 
opportunity of relying upon a provi­
sion which it has interpreted with a 
view to calling in question legal rela­
tionships established in good faith. 
Two essential criteria must be fulfilled 
before such a limitation can be 
imposed, namely that those concerned 
should have acted in good faith and 
that there should be a risk of serious 
difficulties. However, administrative 
and practical difficulties arising from 
the re-examination of numerous files 
cannot be considered as serious diffi­
culties. 
(see paras 42— 4-3) 
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