Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1997:586
Date: 1997-12-04
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Oils and fats
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Own resources of the European Communities — Unduly paid Community subsidies — Recovery 
— National legislation permitting loss of enrichment to be taken into consideration — Whether 
permissible — Conditions 
Community law does not in principle pre­
clude national legislation from allowing 
recovery of unduly paid Community subsi­
dies to be barred, on the basis of criteria such 
as loss of the enrichment, where, in the case 
of subsidies for processing oil seeds: 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-298/96 
— the recipient of the subsidy had already, 
at the time when it was granted, passed 
on the pecuniary advantage resulting 
from it by paying the producer the target 
price prescribed by Community law, and 
— any right of recourse against his suppliers 
is worthless. 
That presupposes, however: 
— that the good faith of the recipient has 
first been established, and 
— that the conditions prescribed are the 
same as those which apply with respect to 
the recovery of purely national financial 
benefits. 
With regard more specifically to the con­
dition that the recipient should have acted in 
good faith, if a trader draws up and submits 
a declaration with a view to obtaining a sub­
sidy, the mere fact of having drawn up that 
document cannot deprive him of the right to 
plead his good faith when the declaration is 
based exclusively on information which was 
provided by third parties. It is, however, for 
the national court to consider whether cer­
tain factors should not, in the circumstances 
of each case, have caused the trader to check 
the accuracy of this information. 
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