Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2014:293
Date: 2014-04-30
Language of the case: German
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 2 October 2014 Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Direct support schemes — Common rules — Single payment scheme — Permanent pasture — Definition — Agricultural land which is currently, and has been for five years or more used to grow grass and other herbaceous forage — Land ploughed up and sown with a type of herbaceous forage other than that previously grown on it during that period — Included — Changing from a certain type of pasture to another on the same area — Crop rotation — Not included (Council Regulation No 73/2009, Recital 7; Commission Regulation 1120/2009, Art. 2(c)) The definition of ‘permanent pasture’ set out in Article 2(2)(c) of Regulation No 1120/2009 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of the single payment scheme provided for in Title III of Regulation No 73/2009 establishing common rules for direct support schemes for farmers under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers must be interpreted as covering agricultural land which is currently, and has been for five years or more, used to grow grass and other herbaceous forage, even though that land has been ploughed up and seeded with another variety of herbaceous forage other than that which was previously grown on it during that period. First, that definition makes no mention of the fact that ploughing up the land and sowing it with a variety of herbaceous forage other than that which was previously cultivated there excludes, in itself, classification as ‘permanent pasture’. Neither does that definition make any distinction between grass and certain herbaceous forage, so that all grasses and all other herbaceous forage are part of one single category which is not subdivided. All varieties of herbaceous forage are considered as equivalent for the purposes of that provision and the choice of the specific variety of herbaceous plant grown on the land concerned does not, in itself, have any effect on the classification of that land as ‘permanent pasture’. Second, the objective of maintaining permanent pasture laid down in recital 7 in the preamble to Regulation No 73/2009 also indicates that changing from a certain type of pasture to another on the same area cannot be regarded as ‘crop rotation’ within the meaning of Article 2(c) of Regulation No 1120/2009, which excludes the classification of ‘permanent pasture’ in that article. (see paras 32, 33, 36, 40, operative part)