CELEX: C2002/274/19
Language: en
Date: 2002-11-09 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 19 September 2002 in Case C-336/00 (Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Oberster Gerichtshof): Republik Österreich v Martin Huber (Agriculture — Part-financed aid — Repayment — Legal basis — Protection of legitimate expectations — Legal certainty — Procedural autonomy of Member States)

C 274/12                EN                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                           9.11.2002
In circumstances such as those of the main proceedings, characterised         and the Kingdom of Sweden and the adjustments to the
by the absence of obligations freely assumed by one party towards             Treaties on which the European Union is founded (OJ 1994
another on the occasion of negotiations with a view to the formation          C 241, p. 21 and OJ 1995 L 1, p. 1), the Court (Fifth
of a contract and by a possible breach of rules of law, in particular         Chamber), composed of: P. Jann, President of the Chamber,
the rule which requires the parties to act in good faith in such              D. A. O. Edward, A. La Pergola, M. Wathelet (Rapporteur) and
negotiations, an action founded on the pre-contractual liability of the       C. W. A. Timmermans, Judges; S. Alber, Advocate General;
defendant is a matter relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict within the     M.-F. Contet, Administrator, for the Registrar, has given a
meaning of Article 5(3) of the Convention of 27 September 1968                judgment on 19 September 2002, in which it has ruled:
on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and
Commercial Matters, as amended by the Convention of 9 October
1978 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland and the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, by the                  1.    Consideration of the first question has not disclosed any factor
Convention of 25 October 1982 on the Accession of the Hellenic                      of such a kind as to affect the validity of Council Regulation
Republic and by the Convention of 26 May 1989 on the Accession                      (EEC) No 2078/92 of 30 June 1992 on agricultural
of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic.                                production methods compatible with the requirements of the
                                                                                    protection of the environment and the maintenance of the
                                                                                    countryside, as amended by the Act concerning the conditions
( 1) OJ C 302 of 21.10.2000.
                                                                                    of accession of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland
                                                                                    and the Kingdom of Sweden and the adjustments to the Treaties
                                                                                    on which the European Union is founded.
                                                                              2.    Article 7(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92, as amended by
                                                                                    the abovementioned Act of Accession, must be interpreted as
                                                                                    meaning that a Commission decision approving a national aid
                                                                                    programme also encompasses its content, without, however,
                 JUDGMENT OF THE COURT                                              conferring on that programme the nature of an act of
                                                                                    Community law.
                          (Fifth Chamber)
                                                                              3.    A Commission decision approving a national aid programme
                                                                                    as referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92,
                      of 19 September 2002                                          as amended by the Act of Accession, is addressed only to the
                                                                                    Member State concerned. It is for the national courts to decide,
                                                                                    in the light of national law, whether the publicity given to that
in Case C-336/00 (Reference for a preliminary ruling from                           programme enabled it to become binding on agricultural and
the Oberster Gerichtshof): Republik Österreich v Martin                             rural operators, in particular by ensuring compliance with
                              Huber ( 1)                                            the requirement of appropriate information laid down in
                                                                                    Article 3(3)(f) of Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92.
(Agriculture — Part-financed aid — Repayment — Legal
basis — Protection of legitimate expectations — Legal
     certainty — Procedural autonomy of Member States)                        4.    Community law does not preclude the application of the
                                                                                    principles of the protection of legitimate expectations and legal
                                                                                    certainty in order to prevent the recovery of aid part-financed by
                          (2002/C 274/19)                                           the Community which has been wrongly paid, provided that the
                                                                                    interest of the Community is also taken into consideration. The
                                                                                    application of the principle of the protection of legitimate
                   (Language of the case: German)                                   expectations assumes that the good faith of the beneficiary of
                                                                                    the aid in question is established.
(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published
                   in the European Court Reports)                             5.    It is open to Member States to implement national aid
                                                                                    programmes within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Regulation
                                                                                    (EEC) No 2078/92, as amended by the Act of Accession, by
                                                                                    private-sector measures or by forms of State action, in so far as
In Case C-336/00: Reference to the Court under Article 234                          the national measures in question do not affect the scope and
EC by the Oberster Gerichtshof (Austria) for a preliminary                          effectiveness of Community law.
ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between
Republik Österreich and Martin Huber, on the validity and
interpretation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92 of
30 June 1992 on agricultural production methods compatible                    (1 ) OJ C 335 of 25.11.2000.
with the requirements of the protection of the environment
and the maintenance of the countryside (OJ 1992 L 215,
p. 85), as amended by the Act concerning the conditions of
accession of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland