Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1 . Community law - Principles - Force majeure - Effects - Creation of rights not provided for by the rules - Precluded

2 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Determination of reference quantities exempt from the levy - Taking account of exceptional events which have affected production - Limits - Choice of a reference year outside the options offered by the Community rules - Precluded

( Council Regulation No 857/84, Art . 3 ( 3 ); Commission Regulation No 1371/84 )

3 . Agriculture - common agricultural policy - Objectives - Rational development of milk production and guarantee of fair earnings for producers - Introduction of an additional levy on milk - Lawfulness

( EEC Treaty, Art . 39 ( 1 ) ( a ) and ( b ); Council Regulation No 857/84; Commission Regulation No 1371/84 )

4 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Producers who are victims of exceptional events affecting their production throughout the reference period - Burden not disproportionate

( Council Regulation No 857/84; Commission Regulation No 1371/84

5 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Discrimination between producers or consumers - Additional levy on milk - Different effects on producers according to their production during a reference period - No discrimination

( EEC Treaty, Art . 40 ( 3 ), second subparagraph; Council Regulation No 857/84; Commission Regulation No 1371/84 )

Summary

1 . Although force majeure may excuse an operator from certain legal consequences which, under the applicable rules, would normally flow from the non-occurrence of a fact or the non-compliance with an obligation, it can never create for the benefit of that operator a right not provided for in the relevant rules .

2 . Council Regulation No 857/84, as supplemented by Commission Regulation No 1371/84, precludes a producer whose milk production has been affected by an exceptional event throughout the 1981 to 1983 period from having reference made either to the quantity of milk or milk equivalent which he delivered in a year prior to 1981 or to a notional quantity to be calculated by extrapolating the normal trend in his deliveries during a certain period prior to the occurrence of that exceptional event .

3 . The purpose of the additional levy system is to re-establish, by limiting milk production, the balance between supply and demand in the milk market, which is characterized by structural surpluses . This measure, therefore, is within the ambit of the objectives of rational development of milk production and, by contributing to a stabilization of the income of the agricultural community affected, that of ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community . It does not, therefore, fail to comply with the objections of the common agricultural policy set out in Article 39 ( 1 ) ( a ) and ( b ) of the Treaty .

4 . Having regard to the wide discretion as to the nature and scope of the measures to be taken which the Community legislature enjoys in the implementation of the common agricultural policy, the system of additional levies on milk cannot be considered to impose burdens out of proportion to the objectives pursued on producers whose milk production has significantly declined because of an exceptional event during the reference year selected by the Member State in which they are established . Those producers have had their situation duly taken into account in compliance with the imperative requirements of legal certainty and the effectiveness of the additional levy system . Thus, in the first place, they enjoy the right to choose a reference year within the 1981 to 1983 period and secondly, they may, under certain conditions, benefit from the reallocation by the Member States of non-utilized reference quantities .

5 . Article 40 ( 3 ) of the Treaty, as a specific expression of the general principle of equality, precludes comparable situations from being treated in a different manner unless the difference in treatment is objectively justified . Consequently, that provision is not breached by the fact that the rules of the additional levy on milk adversely affect producers whose milk production was significantly reduced throughout the 1981 to 1983 period in comparison with those who are able to rely on a representative production within that period since the difference in treatment is objectively justified by the need to limit the number of years which may be taken as reference years, in the interests of both legal certainty and the additional levy system .