CELEX: 31977D0172
Language: en
Date: 1977-02-17 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 17 February 1977 concerning an aid for the pigmeat sector in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

26 . 2. 77                            Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 54/ 39
                                                  COMMISSION
                                                 COMMISSION DECISION
                                                    of 17 February 1977
                concerning an aid for the pigmeat sector in the United Kingdom of Great
                                               Britain and Northern Ireland
                                              (Only the English text is authentic)
                                                        (77/ 172/EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                   Whereas that supply is already in surplus in the
 COMMUNITIES,                                                     Community as a whole, and is likely to remain so for
                                                                  some time ;
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
 Economic Community, and in particular the first sub­
 paragraph of Article 93 (2) thereof,                             Whereas therefore by favouring pigmeat production in
                                                                  the United Kingdom the aid in question threatens to
 Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No                     distort competition in the Community ;
 2759/75 of 29 October 1975 on the common organiza­
 tion of the market in pigmeat ('), and in particular             Whereas moreover the United Kingdom in 1975
Article 21 thereof,                                               imported 675 000 tonnes (51 1 000 tonnes in the first
                                                                  nine months) of pigmeat products, of which 587 000
 Having regard to the observations submitted by the               tonnes (443 000 tonnes in the first nine months) were
 parties concerned (2),                                           from other Member States ; whereas in the first nine
                                                                  months of 1976 the United Kingdom imported
Whereas, by a letter from the Office of its Permanent             490 000 tonnes thereof, of which 438 000 tonnes were
 Representative to the European Communities dated                 from other Member States ; whereas the United
 19 January 1977 and received by the Commission on                Kingdom is thus the Community's largest importer of
 20 January 1977, the Government of the United                    pigmeat products ;
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
 informed the Commission under Article 93 (3) of the
Treaty of its intention to grant from 31 January 1977,            Whereas there was no abnormal rise in imports
 for an unspecified period, a temporary subsidy of                between 1975 and 1976 notwithstanding the fact that,
approximately 5-5 pence per kilogram dead weight to               according to the British authorities, the monetary
 pig producers, and further that the aid would be                 compensatory amounts were excessive ; whereas, in
announced publicly by the British Ministry of Agricul­            this context, the measure could affect intra-Commu­
ture on 20 January 1977 ;                                         nity trade to a considerable extent, in particular
                                                                  because it puts imports from other Member States at a
Whereas the Commission, taking the view that this                 disadvantage ;
scheme was not compatible with the common market
under Article 92 of the Treaty, began proceedings                 Whereas the proposed measure accordingly is covered
under Article 93 (2) in respect thereof on 25 January             by the prohibition laid down in Article 92 ( 1 ) of the
 1977 ;                                                           Treaty ;
Whereas the trend in the pig breeding herd in the
United Kingdom runs parallel to that in the other                 Whereas aid introduced by the British authorities
Community countries, which is currently undergoing                applies throughout the United Kingdom ; whereas it
a cyclical increase involving in the short term an                is granted according to the amounts produced and is
increase in the pig supply ;                                      aimed not at the lasting development of production
                                                                  but at its temporary protection against competition
(') OJ No L 282, 1 . 11 . 1975, p. 1 .                            from other Member States ; whereas as such it rates as
(2) See in particular OJ No C 22, 29 . 1 . 1977.                  an aid to the functioning of the enterprises in the
 ---pagebreak--- No L 54/40                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               26 . 2 . 77
sector concerned and thus is a type of aid which the         Commission, to the effect that they consider that the
Commission has always, in principle, condemned ;             measure taken by the United Kingdom threatens to
                                                             distort competition and affects trade between Member
Whereas such aids to functioning, which are not              States without assisting the development of the sector
granted subject to conditions calculated to give them a      in question ; whereas those Member States which have
development effect, cannot qualify for any of the            submitted their observations are extremely concerned
exemptions from prohibition provided for under               about the said aid and are urging the Commission to
Article 92 (3) (a) and (c) of the Treaty ;                   take action against it with the utmost expedition ;
                                                             Whereas, furthermore, the granting of the said aid
Whereas the aid in question clearly does not meet the        notified to the Commission on 20 January 1977 was
conditions required for it to qualify for the exemp­         announced publicly on the same day by the British
tions provided for under Article 92 (2) of the Treaty ;      Ministry of Agriculture without any reference to the
whereas in addition it cannot qualify for the exemp­         need for its acceptance by the Commission ; whereas
tion provided for under Article 92 (3) (b), since, being     in its letter of 4 February 1977 the Government of the
granted in respect only of one sector of the British         United Kingdom stated that it had brought the
economy, a sector which only constitutes a small part        measure in question into force ; whereas in so doing it
of the gross national product, it is not calculated to       failed to inform the Commission in sufficient time as
remedy a serious disturbance of that economy ;               required by the first sentence of Article 93 (3) of the
                                                             Treaty ; whereas by putting the measure into force
Whereas moreover an analysis of the pigmeat sector           after the Commission had begun proceedings under
in the United Kingdom shows that the average size of         Article 93 (2) of the Treaty the Government of the
pig-rearing establishments stands at 170 head,               United Kingdom is in breach of the third sentence of
compared with a Community average of 26 head ;               Article 93 (3) of the Treaty ; whereas the measure in
whereas in the last quarter of 1976 the price average        question is therefore illegal under Community law ;
for pig carcases converted at the official rates was
126-7 units of account per 100 kilograms in the              Whereas the decisions of the Court of Justice show
United Kingdom and 1 1 5-6 units of account in the           that the prohibition against putting a proposed
Community ; whereas the monthly average slaughter            measure     of aid  into  effect contained    in  the    last
of sows and boars in the United Kingdom in the last          sentence of Article 93 (3) of the Treaty has a direct
quarter of 1976 was 37 000 head, compared with a             effect in the internal legal system of the Member
monthly average of 47 000 in the crisis months of the        States ;
first quarter of 1974 ;
                                                             Whereas, this being so, no period of time should be
Whereas such analysis does not therefore indicate an         allowed for the British Government to discontinue its
abnormal situation by reference to the cyclical fluctua­     aid ;
tions which may be expected in this sector, and
consequently the reasons for the intervention by the
Government of the United Kingdom cannot be justi­            Whereas the Government of the United Kingdom
fied ;                                                       made application to the Council by letter dated 4
                                                             February 1977, under the third subparagraph of
                                                             Article 93 (2) of the Treaty, for a decision that the said
Whereas in its observations of 4 February 1977 the           aid be considered to be compatible with the common
Government of the United Kingdom drew the atten­             market, in derogation from the provision of Article
tion of the Commission to the disrupting effect of the       92 ; whereas this application was rejected by the
method of calculation of the monetary compensatory           Council at its meetings of 8 , 14 and 15 February
amounts in the pigmeat sector, and to the compati­           1977 ; whereas the procedure provided for in the first
bility, as it sees it, of the aid in question with the       subparagraph of Article 93 (2), which was suspended
common market under Article 92 of the Treaty ;               by virtue of the application, may now be resumed,
Whereas these observations, and similar observations
submitted by another UK party concerned, contain no
new matters on the strength of which the Commis­             HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
sion could change its position ; whereas, in particular,
the method of calculation of the monetary compensa­
tory amounts, which is effected in accordance with
the Community rules in force, cannot possibly be                                      Article 1
regarded as a reason for granting a national aid ;
                                                             The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Whereas certain Member States and other parties              Ireland shall forthwith terminate the provision of the
concerned have submitted their observations to the           aid in .the form of a subsidy to pig producers the plan
 ---pagebreak--- 26 . 2. 77                       Official Journal of the European Communities                      No L 54/41
for which was notified to the Commission by letter         Done at Brussels, 17 February 1977.
dated 19 January 1977.
                                                                                  For the Commission
                      Article 2
                                                                                   Finn GUNDELACH
This Decision is addressed to the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.                                                   Vice-President