Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:69
Date: 1998-02-19
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Sugar;French overseas departments
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: France

Summary of the J u d g m e n t 
Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Sugar — Imports of cane sugar origi­
nating in the overseas countries and territories — Measures permitting the sugars produced in the 
French overseas departments to be marketed — 'Refinery' qualifying for the aid — Concept — 
Unit forming part of an industrial complex also including a unit for the extraction of sugar-hearing 
liquids obtained from beet — Exclusion 
(Council Regulation No 1785/81, Art. 9(4), third subpara., as amended by Regulation No 1482/85) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-269/96 
The purpose of the system of aid set up by 
Article 9(4) of Regulation N o 1785/81 on the 
common organisation of the markets in the 
sugar sector is to facilitate the marketing in 
the European regions of the Community of 
raw cane sugar produced in the French over­
seas departments and, in parallel and at the 
same time, to ensure regular supplies to the 
Community refineries, as defined in the third 
subparagraph of the said Article 9(4). 
A production unit, that is to say an industrial 
plant which functions independently and 
without any link with any other unit, whose 
sole activity consists in refining raw sugar 
and syrups extracted from cane, therefore 
constitutes a refinery within the meaning of 
the aforementioned provision, and that defi­
nition does not cover a refining unit forming 
part of an industrial complex which also 
includes a first-stage unit for the extraction of 
sugar-bearing liquids obtained from beet. 
Furthermore, for the unit in question to be 
described as a refinery within the meaning set 
out above, its activity must at all times be 
given over to the refining of raw sugar and 
cane syrups and may not also involve, inter­
mittently, the refining of sugar-bearing liq­
uids obtained from beet, even separately, if it 
is not to upset the balance and interdepen­
dence, which the Community rules seek to 
achieve, between the production of and out­
lets for raw cane sugar from the French over­
seas departments and regular supplies to spe­
cialised refineries. 
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