1.

By Resolution of 20 July 1972, published in DJ C 86 of 10. 8. 1972, the Council, considering that it was essential to ensure that persons with an economic interest should be aware immediately of the tenor of the implementation provisions to be adopted at the beginning of 1973 to carry out the transitional measures provided for in the agricultural field under the Act of Accession to enable the new Member States to adjust to the rules in force in the Community, announced its approval of the text of the draft Regulation, published as an Annex to the Resolution, and made it clear that the text would be formally adopted immediately after the Treaty of Accession came into force. Article 1 of the draft Regulation provided that the compensatory amounts applicable until 31 July 1973 in trade between the Community as originally constituted and the new Member States, and between the new Member States and third countries, should, in the case of the United Kingdom, be 44·31 u.a. per metric ton for common wheat and 42·33 u.a. per metric ton for barley. The levy then applicable on imports of these products from third countries was, respectively, 67·61 u.a. and 52·88 u.a. Under the provisions of the Act concerning the conditions of accession, especially Articles 2 and 151, the Community rules on agricultural products apply to new Member States with effect from 1 February 1973. The implementing regulation was designed to come into force on the same date. In September 1972, the Compagnie Continentale France concluded a series of contracts for exportation from France to the United Kingdom of denatured wheat and barley totalling 108900 metric tons. Deliveries were to take place during the period from February to June 1973. In concluding these agreements, the Compagnie Continentale France, the applicant in the present case, had presumably taken account of the compensatory amounts published in the draft Regulation mentioned. On 31 January 1973, the Council adopted Regulation No 229/73 (OJ L 27 of 1. 2. 1973) laying down general rules for the system of compensatory amounts for cereals. This Regulation substantially repeats the text of the draft Regulation to which, in the resolution of July 1972 mentioned above, the Council had given its approval. In particular, Article 1 of the Regulation textually reproduces the compensatory amounts set out in the draft. In Regulation No 229/73, however, there are some additions to the text of the draft which the Council had previously approved. As far as the present case is concerned the main addition consists of Article 7, which in its first paragraph provides: ‘If for any product referred to in Article 1 or Article 2 (1) the levy is lower than the compensatory amount fixed for that product or calculated in respect thereof by applying Article 2, the Commission shall apply the scale set out in the Annex to determine the amount applicable by way of compensatory amount in trade between the Community as originally constituted and the new Member States and between those States and third countries’. This provision is based on the first paragraph of Article 55 (6) of the Act of Accession, whereby ‘the compensatory amount levied or granted by a Member State in accordance with paragraph 1 (a) may not exceed the total amount levied by that same Member State on imports from third countries’. Article 7 provides that, in cases where the levy is lower than the compensatory amount fixed, the amount to be applied under the latter head shall be determined on the basis of a scale annexed to the Regulation. This scale, which was designed to prevent slight variations in the amount of the levy from automatically affecting the compensatory amount, consists of a list of flat rate compensatory amounts, each of which remains applicable so long as the rate of levy lies within a given range of values. During the period between the conclusion of the contracts of sale in Great Britain and their execution, there was a sharp increase in the price of cereals on the world market, with the result that, at the time arranged for export to Great Britain, the difference between the price of cereals in the original countries of the Community and the world price had been reduced to such an extent that the levy on imports of these products from third countries into the Community as originally constituted went down to 15 u.a. per metric ton. This was much lower than the sum fixed as the compensatory amounts in trade between the Community as originally constituted and the new Member States. As the Compagnie Continentale France could not, at the time arranged for deliveries to be made in Great Britain, receive in full the compensatory amount on which it was counting when it concluded the contracts for sale, it suffered a consequential loss which it estimates at FF 5728660·17. This is the amount which the company now claims as compensation from the Community.