Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving economic-policy choices - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of the individual - Abnormal and special damage

(EEC Treaty, Art. 215, second para.)

2. Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving economic-policy choices - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of the individual - Additional levy on milk - Producers unlawfully deprived of reference quantities after suspending deliveries pursuant to the system of non-marketing or conversion premiums - Principle of protection of legitimate expectations - Infringement - Liability incurred

(EEC Treaty, Art. 215, second para., Council Regulations Nos 1078/77 and 857/84; Commission Regulation No 1371/84)

3. Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving economic-policy choices - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of the individual - Additional levy on milk - Producers who suspended deliveries pursuant to the system of non-marketing or conversion premiums - Grant of a special reference quantity calculated by applying an unlawful rate of abatement - Principle of protection of legitimate expectations - Infringement - No liability incurred

(EEC Treaty, Art. 215, second para., Council Regulations Nos 1078/77, 857/84 and 764/89)

4. Non-contractual liability - Damage - Reparation - Milk producers unlawfully deprived of reference quantities under the system of the additional levy after suspending deliveries pursuant to the system of non-marketing or conversion premiums - Calculation methods - Entitlement to interest

(EEC Treaty, Art. 215, second para.)

Summary

1. The Community cannot incur non-contractual liability on account of damage caused by a legislative measure adopted by one of its institutions unless a sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of the individual has occurred. In a legislative field characterized by the exercise of a wide discretion essential for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Community cannot incur liability unless the institution concerned has manifestly and gravely disregarded the limits on the exercise of its powers and the damage alleged has gone beyond the bounds of the normal economic risks inherent in the activities in the sector concerned.

2. The conditions required in order for the Community to incur non-contractual liability are fulfilled in the case of Regulation No 857/84 adopting general rules for the application of the additional levy on milk, as supplemented by Regulation No 1371/84, since those regulations were adopted in breach of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, which is a general and superior principle of Community law for the protection of the individual. In so far as it failed completely, without invoking any higher public interest, to take account of the specific situation of a clearly defined group of economic agents, that is to say, producers who, pursuant to an undertaking given under Regulation No 1078/77 introducing a system of premiums for the non-marketing of milk and the conversion of dairy herds, delivered no milk during the reference year, the Community legislator manifestly and gravely disregarded the limits of its discretionary power, thereby committing a sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law.

3. The Community cannot incur non-contractual liability on account of the fact that Regulation No 764/89 provided that milk producers who, pursuant to an undertaking given under Regulation No 1078/77 introducing a system of premiums for the non-marketing of milk and the conversion of dairy herds, did not deliver any milk during the reference year, were to obtain, in certain circumstances, a special reference quantity equal to 60% of the quantity of milk delivered during the twelve months preceding the month in which the application for the non-marketing premium was made. Admittedly, that rule infringes the legitimate expectation of the producers concerned with regard to the limited nature of their non-marketing or conversion undertaking. However, the breach of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations found to exist cannot be described as being sufficiently serious, since, although the regulation concerned was unlawful in so far as it laid down the 60% rule, it enabled the producers concerned to resume their activities. Consequently, the Community legislator did not fail to take the situation of the producers concerned into account. In addition, by adopting Regulation No 764/89 the Community legislator made an economic-policy choice with regard to the manner in which it was necessary to implement the principles set out in the Court' s judgments in Case 120/86 and Case 170/86. That choice was based, on the one hand, on the overriding necessity of not jeopardizing the fragile stability obtaining in the milk products sector and, on the other, on the need to strike a balance between the interests of the producers concerned and the interests of the other producers subject to the milk quota scheme. In making that choice, the Community legislator took account of a higher public interest, without gravely and manifestly disregarding the limits of its discretionary power in this area.

4. In order to calculate the damage sustained by milk producers who were unlawfully deprived of reference quantities under the system of the additional levy on milk after they had suspended deliveries under the system of non-marketing or conversion premiums which the Community is under a duty to make good by virtue of its non-contractual liability, account should be taken, in the absence of particular circumstances warranting a different assessment, of the loss of earnings consisting in the difference between, on the one hand, the income which the producers concerned would have obtained from the milk deliveries which they would have made if, during the period in which no reference quantity was originally provided for them, they had obtained the reference quantities to which they were entitled and, on the other hand, the income which they actually obtained from milk deliveries made during that period in the absence of any reference quantity, plus any income which they obtained, or could have obtained, during that period from any replacement activities which they should have undertaken in order to limit the extent of their loss. The amount of compensation thus determined must be subject to interest as from the date of the judgment establishing the obligation on the part of the Community to make good the damage.