Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Sugar - Intervention price and derived intervention prices - Limit-date for fixing intervention prices - Limit-date not complied with - Consequences

(Council Regulations Nos 1785/81 and 1580/96)

2. Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Obligation - Scope - Regulations

(EC Treaty, Art. 190 (now Art. 253 EC))

3. Agriculture - Common agricultural policy - Evaluation of a complex economic situation - Council's discretion - Overall finding of the basic facts - Legality - Judicial review - Limits

4. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Sugar - Regionalisation of intervention prices - Discrimination between producers and consumers - None

(EC Treaty, Art. 40(3), second subpara. (now, after amendment, Art. 34(2), second subpara., EC); Council Regulation Nos 1785/81 and 1580/96)

5. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Sugar - Regionalisation of prices - Internal market

(Council Regulation No 1785/81)

Summary

1. The limit-date of 1 August for fixing the intervention price and derived intervention prices in Article 3(4) and (5) of Regulation No 1785/81 on the common organisation of the markets in the sugar sector is not strict. Therefore, failure to observe that date cannot have the effect of rendering invalid Regulation No 1580/96 as regards the fixing therein, for marketing year 1996/97, of the intervention price after 1 August.

( see paras 34, 70 )

2. The statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty (now Article 253 EC) must be appropriate to the nature of the measure in question and must show clearly and unequivocally the reasoning of the institution which adopted the contested measure so as to inform the persons concerned of the justification for the measure adopted and to enable the Court to exercise its powers of review. The question whether the statement of reasons meets the requirements must be assessed with regard not only to its wording but also to its context and to all the legal rules governing the matter in question. The statement of the reasons on which regulations are based is not required to specify the often very numerous and complex matters of fact or of law dealt with in the regulations, provided that the latter fall within the general scheme of the body of measures of which they form part.

( see paras 38, 40-41, 70 )

3. When the implementation by the Council of the Community's agricultural policy involves the need to evaluate a complex economic situation, the discretion which it has does not apply exclusively to the nature and scope of the measures to be taken but also to some extent to the finding of the basic facts. In reviewing the exercise of such a power the Court must confine itself to examining whether it contains a manifest error or constitutes a misuse of power or whether the authority in question did not clearly exceed the bounds of its discretion.

( see paras 48-49, 70 )

4. The regionalisation of intervention prices for sugar cannot be regarded as discrimination within the meaning of the second subparagraph of Article 40(3) of the Treaty (now, after amendment, the second subparagraph of Article 34(2) EC), given that the differences in treatment between operators in deficit areas and those in surplus areas are based on objective differences, namely insufficient beet and sugar production.

( see paras 75, 77, 81 )

5. The restrictions on free movement within the Community of sugar produced in deficit areas and the denial to producers in those areas of the opportunity to export sugar which derives in practice from the regionalisation system are the necessary, and indeed deliberate, consequences of that system.

( see para. 78 )