Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2014:132
Date: 2014-03-06
Language of the case: Portuguese
Subject matter: Financial provisions;Free movement of goods;Own resources
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful;Action for failure to fulfil obligations - unfounded
Origin: Portugal

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber), 17 July 2014 1. Judicial proceedings — Oral procedure — Reopening — Obligation to reopen the oral procedure to allow the parties to lodge observations on points of law referred to in the Advocate General’s Opinion — No such obligation (Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 83) 2. European Union own resources — Establishment and making available by the Member States — Obligation to effect post-clearance recovery of import duties — Surplus stocks of non-exported sugar — No establishment and making available in the absence of force majeure or long-term impossibility for reasons not attributable to the Member State concerned to proceed with recovery — Failure to fulfil obligations (Art. 10 EC; Accession Act 1985, Art. 254; Council Regulations No 3771/85, Art. 8(3)(c), and No 1552/89, Arts 2, 11 and 17; Commission Regulation No 579/86, Arts 4, 7 and 8; Council Directives 85/257, Arts 2(a), and 7, and 88/376, Art. 2(a)) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 45-47) 2. By refusing to make available to the Commission a certain amount in euros, corresponding to levies on surplus stocks of non-exported sugar following its accession to the European Community, a Member State fails to fulfil its obligations under Article 10 EC, Article 254 of the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties, Article 7 of Decision 85/257 on the Communities’ system of own resources, Articles 4, 7 and 8 of Regulation No 579/86 laying down detailed rules relating to stocks of products in the sugar sector in Spain and Portugal on 1 March 1986, as amended by Regulation No 3332/86, and Articles 2, 11 and 17 of Regulation No 1552/89 implementing Decision 88/376 on the system of the Communities’ own resources. Article 8(3)(c) of Regulation No 3771/85 on stocks of agricultural products in Portugal, which provides that the detailed rules for the application of that regulation, to be fixed in accordance with the procedures provided for by the regulations on the common organisation of the agricultural markets, include the collection of a charge in cases where a party concerned does not comply with the procedures for disposing of surplus products. Thus, in order to eliminate surplus stocks of sugar found to exist in a Member State, Regulation No 579/86 provides, principally, for the exportation of such stocks within a certain time-limit and, failing exportation within that period, for payment of a levy in an amount equal to the import levy for sugar in force on 30 June 1987, pursuant to Article 7(1) thereof. The charge provided for in Article 8(3)(c) of Regulation No 3771/85 and Article 7(1) of Regulation No 579/86 constitutes another duty provided for within the framework of the common organisation of the markets in sugar within the meaning of Article 2(a) of Decision 85/257 and Article 2(a) of Decision 88/376. It follows that the Member State was required to make the amount available to the Commission, particularly as under Article 17(2) of Regulation No 1552/89, referred to by the Commission, Member States are to be free of the obligation to take all requisite measures to make the amounts corresponding to established entitlements available to the Commission solely if, for reasons of force majeure, those amounts could not be collected or if it appears that recovery is impossible in the long term for reasons which cannot be attributed to them. (see paras 57, 69, 79, 82)