Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Acts of the institutions ° Statement of reasons ° Obligation ° Scope ° Regulations

(EEC Treaty, Art. 190)

2. Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° Discrimination between producers or consumers ° Fixing of a final date for sowing and for lodging applications for compensatory payments under the support system for producers of certain arable crops ° Fixing on the basis of objective criteria adapted to the operational requirements of the common organization ° Different repercussions on producers ° No discrimination

(EEC Treaty, Art. 40(3), second subpara.; Council Regulation No 1765/92, Art. 10(2))

3. Agriculture ° Common agricultural policy ° Objectives ° Harmonization ° Discretion of the institutions ° Stabilization of markets, ensuring of availability of supplies and reasonable standard of living for producers ° Reform of the support system for producers of certain arable crops

(EEC Treaty, Art. 39; Council Regulation No 1765/92)

4. Community law ° Principles ° Protection of legitimate expectations ° Limits ° Amendment of the rules relating to a common organization of the markets ° Discretion of the institutions ° Change, with sufficient notice, in the final date for lodging applications for Community financial aid ° Breach ° None

(Council Regulation No 1765/92)

5. Agriculture ° Common agricultural policy ° Principle of Community preference ° Scope ° Limits

Summary

1. The statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty must be appropriate to the nature of the measure in question. It must show clearly and unequivocally the reasoning of the institution which enacted the 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 statement of the reasons for a measure is not, however, required to specify the matters of fact or of law dealt with, provided that it falls within the general scheme of the body of measures of which it forms part.

2. The common agricultural policy requires the adoption of common rules which may affect producers differently according to the individual orientation of their production or local conditions; but they may not be regarded as constituting discrimination prohibited by the second subparagraph of Article 40(3) of the Treaty if they are based on objective rules formulated to meet the needs of the general common organization.

Such is the case of Article 10(2) of Regulation No 1765/92 establishing a support system for producers of certain arable crops which makes grant of compensatory payment subject to compliance with a final date for sowing and lodging applications. The introduction of such a final date is intended to ensure that the system of such payments is monitored and is effective, does not, in principle, exclude producers from any Member State, and, finally, allows for adaptation according to climatic conditions.

3. In pursuing the objectives of the common agricultural policy, the Community institutions must secure the permanent harmonization made necessary by any conflicts between the various objectives set by Article 39 of the Treaty, taken individually, and, where necessary, allow any one of them temporary priority in order to satisfy the demands of the economic factors or conditions in view of which their decisions are made.

Accordingly, the establishment of a new support system for producers of certain arable crops which might lead to a reduction of Community production and of income for certain producers does not constitute a breach of Article 39 since, by approximating Community prices to the prices of the world market, such a reform aims to stabilize the markets and ensure availability of supplies, which is not the same as self-sufficiency, and losses of income are offset by compensatory payments for which producers may qualify.

4. Traders cannot have a legitimate expectation that an existing situation which is capable of being altered by the Community institutions in the exercise of their discretionary power will be maintained. That is true in an area such as the common agricultural policy and the common organization of the markets, whose purpose involves constant adjustments to meet changes in the economic situation. It follows that traders cannot claim a vested right to the maintenance of an advantage which they derive from the establishment of the common organization of the markets and which they enjoyed at a given time.

That applies with greater force where the innovation introduced by a new regulation amounts merely to a fortnight' s change in the date by which applications for Community financial aid were to be lodged and the producers concerned had sufficient time for adjustment to the new rules.

5. Whilst the principle of Community preference should be taken into account by Community institutions as an element in the common agricultural policy, it nevertheless cannot affect their decision until all the economic factors influencing world trade have been evaluated. Community preference is not in any case a legal requirement the violation of which would result in the invalidity of the measure concerned.