CELEX: C1995/208/03
Language: en
Date: 1995-08-12 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Toulouse Police Court by order of that court of 4 April 1995 in the case of Ministère Public v. Jean-Louis Maurin (Case C-144/95)

No C 208/2              EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                      12 . 8 . 95
Under Community case-law, the applicant associations                          seed , colza seed and sunflower seed for the 1994/95
were individually concerned by the contested decision, since                  marketing year (*);
the capacity to negotiate in Community matters in relation
to a given policy constitutes sufficient capacity for an                ( b) order the Commission to pay the costs.
association representing a category of persons to challenge a
Community decision which is not addressed to it
individually but which concerns that policy.                            Contentions       and principal      arguments     adduced       in
                                                                        support:
I 1 ) OJ No C 146 , 28 . 5 . 1994 , p . 8 .
                                                                        — As regards the reduction by 20 % of the amount of the
                                                                            compensatory payment to be made to the Portuguese
                                                                             producers of sunflower seeds (Annex I, II ( 2 ) of the
                                                                            contested Regulation ): miscalculation of the overshoot
                                                                             of the maximum guaranteed area ( MGA ) by the
                                                                             Portuguese producers of sunflower seeds:
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Toulouse Police
Court by order of that court of 4 April 1995 in the case of                 — The reduction of the basic EC-12 area resulting from
            Ministere Public v. Jean-Louis Maurin                                set-aside was not applicable to the Portuguese
                         ( Case C-144/95 )                                       producers who, in the 1994/95 marketing year,
                            ( 95/C 208/03 )                                      qualified for different treatment, as prescribed by the
                                                                                 Act of Accession . Thus, the overshoot by the
                                                                                 Portuguese producers of the MGA for the growing of
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                           sunflower seeds should have been determined by the
European Communities by an order of the Toulouse Police                          Commission by reference to the MGA of 122 000
Court of 4 April 1995 , which was lodged at the Court                            hectares and not by the method adopted by the
Registry on 10 May 1995 , for a preliminary ruling in the                        Commission, namely on the basis of that area subject
case of Ministere Public ( Public Prosecutor's Office ) v.                       to a deduction of 15 % in respect of set-aside .
Jean-Louis Maurin on the following question :
                                                                             — In any event, the Commission miscalculated the area
Is the procedure for establishing whether an offence has                         on which, in that marketing year, the Portuguese
been committed , as laid down by the Law of 1 August 1905                        producers could grow sunflowers without being
on frauds and falsifications relating to products or services                    penalized . Under the Blair House Agreement, which
concerning the labelling and presentation of food products,                      was transposed into Community legislation, the area
and, more particularly, the fact that a report is not signed by                  within the Community territory sown by small
the person concerned by an investigation, compatible with                        producers cannot be taken into account by the
 the general principles of law elicited by the Court of Justice,                 Commission in calculating the overshoot of the
such as observance of the rights of the defence and of the                       National Reference Areas : account should be taken
adversarial nature of proceedings ?                                              only of the area cultivated by producers operating
                                                                                 under the general regime ('professional' producers ).
                                                                                 Since the Portuguese 'professional ' producers
                                                                                 cultivated 103 875 hectares rather than the 103 700
                                                                                 hectares ( 122 000 less 15 % in respect of set-aside )
                                                                                 which could be cultivated without penalty, there was
                                                                                 practically no overshoot of the MGA.
 Action brought on 12 May 1995 by the Portuguese Republic
              against the European Commission
                                                                             — Even if the Commission had grounds for not
                          ( Case C-l 50/95 )
                                                                                 excluding the areas sown by small producers from
                             ( 95/C 208/04 )                                     the calculation of the overshoot of the MGA
                                                                                 attributed to Portugal in respect of the cultivation of
                                                                                 sunflowers, it was incumbent on the Commission to
 An action against the European Commission was brought                           deduct from the MGA an area of 21 397 hectares,
 before the Court of Justice on 12 May 1995 by the
                                                                                 that is to say the area actually farmed by small
 Portuguese Republic, represented by Dr Joao de Mota                             producers exempted from the set-aside requirement,
 Campos and Dr Luis Ines Fernandes, acting as agents, with                       in order to determine such area as might be subject to
 an address for service in Luxembourg at the Portuguese                          set-aside . Thus, the maximum level of the penalty to
 Embassy, 33 Allee Scheffer.
                                                                                 which the Portuguese producers could as a whole
                                                                                 have been liable is 17% rather than the 20%
 The applicant claims that the Court should :                                    calculated by the Commission.
 (a ) declare null and void Commission Regulation (EC )                      — The applicant expressly alleges that the provisions of
       No 307/95 establishing corrected final regional                            Council Regulations (EEC ) No 1765/92 ( 2 ) and
       reference amounts for producers of soya beans, rape                        (EEC ) No 232/94 ( 3 ) are illegal for breach of the