CELEX: 31977D0075
Language: en
Date: 1976-12-22 00:00:00
Title: 77/75/EEC: Commission Decision of 22 December 1976 relating to the granting of aid for horticulture under glass in the Netherlands in order to offset the increase in fuel oil prices

20 . 1 . 77                            Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 17/25
                                                  COMMISSION DECISION
                                                     of 22 December 1976
               relating to the granting of aid for horticulture under glass in the Netherlands in
                                      order to offset the increase in fuel oil prices
                                                (Only the Dutch text is authentic)
                                                           (77/75/EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                     recorded between 1 September 1973 and the date on
 COMMUNITIES,                                                       which any such aid measure was adopted ; whereas
                                                                    these guidelines also state that this compensation may
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              be granted only if the price of natural gas is equal to
 Economic Community, and in particular the first                    the price of heavy fuel oil less the amount of the aid
 subparagraph of Article 93 (2) thereof,                            granted, these prices being understood as being based
                                                                    on an equal calorific value ;
 Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No
 1035/72 of 18 May 1972 on the common organization
                                                                    Whereas the total amount of the aid proposed by the
 of the market in fruit and vegetables ('), and in parti­
 cular Article 31 thereof,
                                                                    Netherlands Government (subsidies and increase in
                                                                    the rate of reimbursement of exercise duties) exceeded
                                                                    the amounts which could be authorized for fuel oil
 Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No
 234/68 of 27 February 1968 on the establishment of a               prices obtaining on the date on which the measures
 common organization of the market in live trees and                were proposed ;
 other plants, bulbs, roots and the like, cut flowers and
 ornamental foliage (2), and in particular Article 1 1              Whereas the Commission therefore initiated on 15
 thereof,                                                           September 1975 the procedure provided for in the
                                                                    first sentence of Article 93 (2) of the EEC Treaty in
 Having regard to the comments submitted by the                     respect of these measures exceeding the maximum of
 parties concerned,                                                one-third of the price increase ; whereas, under the
                                                                    said procedure, it gave the Netherlands Government,
 Whereas by letter of 15 July 1975 from the office of               the other Member States and any other parties
 its permanent representative, the Netherlands Govern­              concerned, notice to submit their comments (3) ;
 ment     communicated       to   the   Commission      under
 Article 93 (3) of the Treaty a proposal for aid                   Whereas the Netherlands Government submitted its
 comprising the granting of subsidies for horticulture             comments to the Commission by letter of 23
 under glass amounting to F1 34-50 per tonne of heavy               December 1975, in which it did not contest the fact
 fuel oil and F1 37 00 per 1 000 litres of light fuel oil,         that the reimbursement of excise duties fell within the
 in order to offset the increase in the price of oil               field of application of Articles 92 to 94 of the EEC
 products, and the raising of the rate of reimbursement            Treaty, but did not accept the view that the increase
 of excise duties on heavy and light fuel oil from 75 to           in the rate of reimbursement of excise duties would be
 100 % ;     whereas    the     abovementioned       subsidies     covered by the guidelines ;
 amounted to about one-third of the price increase for
oil products between 1 September 1973 and 1 July                   Whereas, in reply to a letter of 11 June 1976 from the
 1975, i.e. F1 34-54 per tonne of heavy fuel oil and F1            Member of the Commission responsible for agricul­
 37-05 per 1 000 litres of light fuel oil ;                        ture, the Netherlands authorities submitted to the
Whereas in the 'guidelines for the granting of any                 Commission by letter of 2 August 1976, certain
 national aid with a view to the adaptation of horticul­           comments which did not contain any points such as
                                                                   to alter the Commission 's assessment ;
 ture under glass and inshore fisheries to developments
on the energy market', communicated to the Member
States by letter of 25 June 1974 and amended by                    Whereas two Member States and certain parties
letter of 30 April 1975, the Commission decided to                 concerned other than the Member States submitted
consider as compatible with the common market aid                  comments to the Commission in which they stated
intended to offset the increase in the price of oil                that they regarded exceeding the maximum of one­
products used in horticulture between 1 July 1975                  third as incompatible with the common market since,
and 30 June 1976, provided that it did not exceed                  in their view, a distortion of competition had already
one-third of the price increase for these products                 been created by the fact that those engaged in horticul­
                                                                   ture in the other Member States did not receive aid
(■) OJ No L 118 , 20 . 5 . 1972, p. 1 .
 2 OJ No L 55, 2. 3 . 1968 , p . 1 .                               (3 ) OJ No C 217, 23 . 9 . 1975 .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 17/ 26                       Official Journal of the European Communities                              20 . 1 . 77
during the period in question to offset the increase in     contrary to the common interest ; whereas it is there­
the price of fuel ;                                         fore covered by the prohibition contained in Article
                                                            92 ( 1 ) of the Treaty without qualifying for exceptional
Whereas there is a very large volume of trade between       treatment under paragraph 3 (c) of that Article ;
the Member States in the agricultural products
concerned ; whereas, consequently, the granting of          Whereas, furthermore it is obvious that the aid in
national aid is likely to affect this trade between         question does not fulfil the conditions which would
Member States and to distort competition within the         enable it to qualify for a derogation as provided for in
meaning of Article 92 ( 1 ) of the EEC Treaty ;             Article 92 (2) and (3) (b) of the EEC Treaty ; whereas
                                                            the aid is not of a regional nature within the meaning
Whereas the guidelines covered any aid intended to          of Article 92 (3) (a) ;
offset the increase in the cost of energy products,
without any exception, and therefore also included aid      Whereas, consequently, this aid is incompatible with
in the form of the reimbursement of excise duties ;          the common market under the terms of Article 92 of
                                                             the Treaty, in so far as it exceeds the aforementioned
Whereas the aid for the operation of undertakings            maximum rate,
provided for in the guidelines was intended to allev­
iate the effects of the increase in the price of oil
products and to enable undertakings engaged in horti­        HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
culture under glass to remain operative during a
certain period of adjustment to the new situation,                                   Article 1
likely to be a lasting one, created by this increase, in
order to avoid social and regional problems ; whereas       The Kingdom of the Netherlands shall not adopt the
the maximum rate fixed by the guidelines constituted         proposed aid measures communicated to the Commis­
the limit within which such aid could be considered          sion by letter of 15 July 1975, to the extent that the
as intended to facilitate the development of horticul­       total amount of the aid exceeds F1 34-54 per tonne of
ture within the meaning of Article 92 (3) (c) of the         heavy fuel oil and F1 37-05 per 1 000 litres of light
EEC Treaty, since this maximum rate enabled                  fuel oil .
Member States to grant sufficient aid to ensure the
adjustment of healthy and viable undertakings to the                                 Article 2
increase in the price of oil products while at the same
time maintaining the need for an effort on the part of      This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of the
the undertakings themselves to cover two-thirds of           Netherlands .
this increase ; whereas aid in excess of this limit
would reduce the effort required of the undertakings,
would enable less profitable undertakings to remain          Done at Brussels , 22 December 1976 .
operative and would impair trade patterns to a degree
contrary to the common interest ;                                                      For the Commission
Whereas exceeding the rate of aid provided for in the                                     P.J. LARDINOIS
guidelines would distort competition and would
impair trade between the Member States to a degree                                  Member of the Commission