Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:530
Date: 2001-10-09
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Beef and veal
Procedure: Action for annulment - successful

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Beef and veal — Beef 
labelling system — Regulation No 820/97 — Prolongation — Legal basis — Regu­
lation No 2772/1999 — Invalidity 
(Council Regulations No 820/97, Art. 19, and No 2772/1999) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-93/00 
2. Actions for annulment — Judgment ordering annulment — Effects — Limits 
imposed by the Court — Invalidity of Regulation No 2772/1999 
(Art. 231, second para., EC; Parliament and Council Regulation No 1760/2000; 
Council Regulations Nos 820/97 and 2772/1999) 
1. By prolonging, by means of Regulation 
No 2772/1999 providing for the gen­
eral rules for a compulsory beef label­
ling system, the validity of the rules 
relating to the voluntary labelling sys­
tem set out in Regulation No 820/97, 
the Council has in fact altered the 
t empora l scope of Regula t ion 
No 820/97. However, that regulation 
could only be amended on a legal basis 
equivalent to that on which it had been 
adopted, that is to say, on the basis of 
the Treaty itself, and in conformity 
with the decision-making process pro­
vided for by the Treaty. The Council 
was therefore wrong to take Article 19 
of Regulation No 820/97 as the basis 
for a d o p t i n g R e g u l a t i o n 
No 2772/1999 and accordingly was 
not competent to adopt Regulation 
No 2772/1999 on the basis of that 
p rov is ion , so t ha t Regula t ion 
No 2772/1999 must be annulled. 
(see paras 41-44) 
2. E v e n t h o u g h R e g u l a t i o n 
No 2772/1999 providing for the gen­
eral rules for a compulsory beef label­
ling system has been replaced in the 
interim by Regulation No 1760/2000 
establishing a system for the identifica­
tion and registration of bovine animals 
and regarding the labelling of beef and 
beef products and repealing Regulation 
No 820/97, its annulment could create 
a legal lacuna potentially affecting, in 
particular, decisions which the Member 
States may have taken in application of 
Regulation No 820/97 establishing a 
system for the identification and regis­
tration of bovine animals and regard­
ing the labelling of beef and beef 
products during the period covered by 
the extension of time provided for by 
Regulation No 2772/1999. For reasons 
of legal certainty, it is thus appropriate 
for the Court to have recourse to the 
power conferred on it by the second 
paragraph of Article 231 EC and to 
rule that the effects of those provisions 
of Regulation No 2772/1999 pursuant 
to which the Member States may have 
adopted decisions which could be 
affected by the annulment are to be 
regarded as definitive. 
(see para. 48) 
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