Joined Cases C-480/00 to C-482/00, C-484/00, C-489/00 to C-491/00 and C‑497/00 to C-499/00

Azienda Agricola Ettore Ribaldi and Others

v

Azienda di Stato per gli interventi nel mercato agricolo (AIMA) and Others

(References for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale amministrativo regionale del Lazio)

(Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Milk and milk products – Additional levy on milk – Regulations (EEC) Nos 3950/92 and 536/93 – Reference quantities – Ex post correction – Notification of producers)

Summary of the Judgment

1. Member States – Obligations – Implementation of Community law – Application of the procedural and substantive rules of national law – Conditions

(EC Treaty, Art. 5 (now Art. 10 EC))

2. Agriculture – Common agricultural policy – Objectives – Rational development of milk production and ensuring of a fair income for producers – Introduction of an additional levy on milk – Whether lawful

(Council Regulation No 3950/92, Art. 10; Commission Regulation No 536/93, Arts 3 and 4)

3. Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Milk and milk products – Additional levy on milk – Regulations Nos 3950/92 and 536/93 – Reference quantities – Ex post correction and recalculation of levies after the final date for payment of those levies – Whether permissible – Breach of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations – None

(Council Regulation No 3950/92, Arts 1 and 4; Commission Regulation No 536/93, Arts 3 and 4)

4. Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Milk and milk products – Additional levy on milk – Regulations Nos 3950/92 and 536/93 – Reference quantities – Ex post correction – Obligation to notify producers – The national court to determine whether that obligation has been fulfilled, having regard to the principle of legal certainty

(Council Regulation No 3950/92; Commission Regulation No 536/93)

1. According to the general principles on which the Community is based and which govern relations between the Community and the Member States, it is for the latter, under Article 5 of the EC Treaty (now Article 10 EC), to ensure that Community rules are implemented within their territories. In so far as Community law, including its general principles, does not include common rules to that effect then, when the national authorities implement Community rules, they are to act in accordance with the procedural and substantive rules of their own national law.

Nevertheless, when adopting measures to implement Community legislation, national authorities must exercise their discretion in compliance with the general rules of Community law, which include the principles of proportionality, legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations.

(see paras 42-43)

2. The purpose of the system of the additional levy on milk is to re-establish, by limiting milk production, the balance between supply and demand in the milk market, which is characterised by structural surpluses. This measure, therefore, is within the ambit of the objectives of rational development of milk production and, by contributing to a stabilisation of the income of the agricultural community affected, that of ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community.

It follows that the additional levy is not to be regarded as a penalty analogous to those provided for under Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation No 536/93 laying down detailed rules on the application of the additional levy on milk and milk products. The additional levy on milk amounts to a restriction arising from market policy rules or structural policy.

Moreover, as Article 10 of Regulation No 3950/92 establishing an additional levy in the milk and milk products sector clearly shows, the additional levy is to be considered to be intervention to stabilise agricultural markets and is to be used to finance expenditure in the milk sector. It follows that, apart from its obvious aim of requiring milk producers to observe the reference quantities allocated to them, the additional levy has an economic objective too, in that it is intended to bring to the Community the funds necessary for disposal of milk produced by producers in excess of their quotas.

(see paras 57-59)

3. On a proper construction of Articles 1 and 4 of Regulation No 3950/92 establishing an additional levy in the milk and milk products sector and of Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation No 536/93 laying down detailed rules on the application of the additional levy on milk and milk products, it is not contrary to those provisions for a Member State, after checks have been carried out, to correct the individual reference quantities allocated to each producer and, after the unused reference quantities have been reallocated, to recalculate in consequence the additional levies payable, after the final date for payment of those levies for the milk marketing year concerned.

First, in so far as the individual reference quantity to which a producer can lay claim actually corresponds to the quantity of milk marketed by that producer during the reference year, that producer, who is as a rule aware of how much milk he has produced, can have no legitimate expectation that an inaccurate reference quantity will be continued.

Second, no legitimate expectation can be entertained as to the continuation of a situation which is plainly unlawful in the light of Community law, namely, the failure to apply the arrangements for the additional levy on milk. Milk producers in the Member States cannot legitimately expect, 11 years after the system was introduced, to be able to go on producing milk without limit.

(see paras 66-68, operative part 1)

4. Regulation No 3950/92 establishing an additional levy in the milk and milk products sector and Regulation No 536/93 laying down detailed rules on the application of the additional levy on milk and milk products are to be interpreted as requiring that the original allocation of individual reference quantities and any later alteration to them should be notified to the producers concerned by the competent national authorities.

The principle of legal certainty demands that that communication should be of such a nature as to give the natural or legal persons concerned all information relating to the original allocation of their individual reference quantity or later alteration to it. It is for the national court to determine, on the basis of the facts before it, whether that is so in the cases in the main proceedings.

(see para. 87, operative part 2)