Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° Milk and milk products ° Additional levy on milk ° Award of reference quantities exempt from the levy ° Producers who suspended deliveries under the non-marketing or conversion premium scheme ° Allocation of a special reference quantity ° Anti-accumulation rule excluding transferees of a non-marketing or conversion premium who had obtained a reference quantity under other provisions of the additional levy scheme ° Invalid ° Power or duty of the competent national authority to award a special reference quantity ° None

(Council Regulation No 857/84, as amended by Regulation No 764/89, Art. 3a(1))

2. Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° Milk and milk products ° Additional levy on milk ° Award of reference quantities exempt from the levy ° Producers who suspended deliveries under the non-marketing or conversion premium scheme ° Allocation of a special reference quantity ° Producer excluded from an award under an anti-accumulation rule which has been declared invalid ° Successor having begun production as sub-tenant before also becoming, through an inheritance, owner of the holding subject to a lease in favour of the tenant ° Power or duty of the competent national authority to award a special reference quantity ° None ° Infringement of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations ° None

(Council Regulation No 857/84, as amended by Regulations Nos 764/89 and 1639/91, Art. 3a(1))

Summary

1. The competent national authority had no duty under Regulation No 857/84, as amended by Regulation No 764/89, and in particular under Article 3a(1) thereof, to award a provisional special reference quantity exempt from the additional levy on milk to a producer who had obtained primary quota in respect of a separate holding and who, following the dissolution of a partnership in which it was a partner, took over the assets and business of the dissolved partnership and became sole operator of that partnership' s holding while observing, without having formally undertaken to do so, the non-marketing undertaking previously given by that partnership, and, furthermore, the competent national authority had no power to do so.

To be eligible for a provisional special reference quantity under the relevant rules, the producer must not only have participated, either in that capacity or as successor to an agricultural holding, in a non-marketing scheme such as that established by Regulation No 1078/77, but must also not have obtained a reference quantity under the conditions laid down, inter alia, by Article 2 of Regulation No 857/84. Although the first condition must be regarded as having been satisfied by the producer in question, because the failure to perform a mere formality, such as the giving of a written undertaking to continue to perform the obligations entered into by its predecessor, cannot be regarded as causing the successor to an agricultural holding to be excluded from the non-marketing scheme, as would be the case if it had not in fact observed the non-marketing undertaking, the second condition is not satisfied where that producer has already obtained primary quota under Article 2 of Regulation No 857/84 in respect of the five farms on which it had continued milk production.

The fact that the Court held in its judgment in Case C-264/90 Wehrs v Hauptzollamt Lueneburg [1992] ECR I-6285 that the second indent of Article 3a(1) was invalid in so far as transferees of a premium granted pursuant to Regulation No 1078/77, to whom the producer in question is comparable, were barred from allocation of a special reference quantity if they had received a reference quantity under Article 2 of Regulation No 857/84, neither required nor empowered the competent national authority to award to that producer a special reference quantity, whether provisional or definitive, exempt from the additional levy on milk.

The conclusions which may be drawn in the national legal systems from a ruling of invalidity of a measure adopted by an institution depend, on any view, directly on Community law as it stands in the light of that ruling. In the presence of a complex system such as that of milk quotas, the relevant state of the law following the ruling of invalidity in the judgment in Wehrs and before the adoption of Regulation No 2055/93 did not of itself, that is to say without readjustment of that system, permit the allocation of a special reference quantity to such a producer.

2. The competent national authority had no duty under Regulation No 857/84, as amended by Regulation No 764/89 and Regulation No 1639/91, and in particular under the second indent of the last subparagraph of Article 3a(1) thereof, to award a special reference quantity exempt from the additional levy on milk to a producer who had commenced production on a holding as sub-tenant after the expiry of a non-marketing period under Regulation No 1078/77 before then becoming also owner of that holding subject to a lease granted to the tenant, nor did it have the power to do so, since that producer, even assuming that the holding had been transferred to him through an inheritance or similar means within the period laid down, could, as successor, claim such a quantity only on the same basis as the originator of the inheritance himself and since the rules in force did not permit the award of such a quantity to any of his predecessors.

The fact that the second indent of Article 3a(1) was declared invalid by the Court in its judgment in Case C-264/90 Wehrs [1992] ECR I-6285 in that it made the award of a reference quantity to a predecessor of the producer subject to a condition which precisely that predecessor did not fulfil, in no way altered the duty or power of the national authority to award a special reference quantity to that producer. That ruling of invalidity cannot by itself give rise, prior to the readjustment of the system of reference quantities which it made necessary, to a right of the predecessor to such a quantity.

The fact that Article 3a, as amended by Regulation No 1639/91, does not permit the award of a reference quantity to that producer does not constitute an infringement of the principle of protection of legitimate expectations, since, although he can invoke his status as successor, he cannot, in that capacity, lay claim to more than his predecessors, who could not claim the award of a special reference quantity.