Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2011:67
Date: 2011-02-10
Language of the case: Hungarian
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Agricultural structures
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Hungary

Summary of the Judgment Agriculture – Common agricultural policy – Integrated administration and control system for certain aid schemes – Complementary national aid (Council Regulation No 1782/2003; Council Decision 2004/281) Regulation No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, as amended by Decision 2004/281 adapting the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded, following the reform of the common agricultural policy, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which excludes from the benefit of complementary national aid legal persons carrying on agricultural activity in the territory of the Member State in question, on the ground that they are the subject of voluntary dissolution proceedings, when a condition that there be no such proceedings has not been the subject of prior authorisation by the Commission. Although Regulation No 1782/2003 grants the new Member States a certain discretion in setting in motion the complementary national aid, that discretion is nevertheless limited in so far as, in accordance with the provisions of Article 143c(7) of that regulation, the amount up to which the complementary national aid may be paid, as well as its rate and the possible conditions of its grant, must be subject to the prior authorisation of the Commission. (see paras 36, 38, 41, operative part)