Azienda Agricola Ettore Ribaldi v Azienda di Stato per gli interventi nel mercato agricolo (AIMA) and Ministero del Tesoro, del Bilancio e della Programmazione Economica, and Caseificio Nazionale Novarese Soc. coop. arl (C-480/00) and joined cases.
Date: 2004-03-25
42. According to the general principles on which the Community is based and which govern relations between the Community and the Member States, it is for the latter, under Article 5 of the EC Treaty (now Article 10 EC), to ensure that Communit y rules are implemented within their territories.  In so far as Community law, including its general principles, does not include common rules to that effect then, when the national authorities implement Community rules, they are to act in accordance with the procedural and substantive rules of their own national law (see, in particular, Case C-285/93 Dominikanerinnen-Kloster Altenhohenau  [1995] ECR I-4069, paragraph 26, and Karlsson and Others , cited above, paragraph 27).
43. Nevertheless, when adopting measures to implement Community legislation, national authorities must exercise their discretion in compliance with the general rules of Community law, which include the principles of proportionality, legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations (see, to that effect, Case C-313/99 Mulligan and Others  [2002] ECR I-5719, paragraphs 35 and 36).
47. Regulation No 3950/92 is intended to extend the additional milk levy scheme introduced by earlier legislation and is based on the premiss that milk quotas have already been allocated in all the Member States respectively (see Karlsson and Others, paragraph 32).
52. Although the time-limits prescribed by those articles are mandatory (see, to that effect, Molkereigenossenschaft Wiedergeltingen , paragraphs 38 to 40), the fact remains that they do not preclude the competent authorities of a Member State from making after-the-event checks and corrections for the purpose of ensuring that that Member State’s production does not exceed the guaranteed global quantity allocated to it.
53. On the contrary, the aim both of the time-limits laid down in Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation No 536/93 and of checks and corrections made after the event, such as those carried out by the AIMA, is to ensure that the additional milk levy system is operated efficiently and the relevant legislation applied correctly.
57. As regards the principle of proportionality, it must first be noted that the purpose of the additional levy system is to re-establish, by limiting milk production, the balance between supply and demand in the milk market, which is characterised by structural surpluses.  This measure, therefore, is within the ambit of the objectives of rational development of milk production and, by contributing to a stabilisation of the income of the agricultural community affected, that of ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community (Case 84/87 Erpelding  [1988] ECR 2647, paragraph 26).
58. It follows that, contrary to the arguments of the applicants in the main proceedings, the additional levy is not to be regarded as a penalty analogous to those provided for under Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation No 536/93.  The additional levy on milk amounts to a restriction arising from market policy rules or structural policy (see, to that effect, Case C-177/90 Kühn  [1992] ECR I-35, paragraph 13).
59. Then, as Article 10 of Regulation No 3950/92 clearly shows, the additional levy is to be considered to be intervention to stabilise agricultural markets and is to be used to finance expenditure in the milk sector.  It follows that, apart from its obvious aim of requiring milk producers to observe the reference quantities allocated to them, the additional levy has an economic objective too, in that it is intended to bring to the Community the funds necessary for disposal of milk produced by producers in excess of their quotas.
68. Having regard to all the foregoing considerations, the answer to be given to the first question must be that on a proper construction of Articles 1 and 4 of Regulation No 3950/92 and Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation No 536/93, it is not contrary to those provisions for a Member State, after checks have been carried out, to correct the individual reference quantities allocated to each producer and, after the unused reference quantities have been reallocated, to recalculate in consequence the additional levies payable, after the final date for payment of those levies for the milk marketing year concerned.
Concerning the second question
72. On this point it must be borne in mind that it is solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular circumstances of the case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court.  Consequently, where the questions submitted by the national court concern the interpretation of Community law, the Court of Justice is, in principle, bound to give a ruling.  The Court may refuse to rule on a question referred for a preliminary ruling by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of, or assessment of the validity of, a provision of Community law that is sought by the court making the reference bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (see, inter alia, Case C-415/93 Bosman  [1995] ECR I-4921, paragraphs 59 to 61, Case C-36/99 Idéal tourisme  [2000] ECR I-6049, paragraph 20, and Case C-137/00 Milk Marque and National Farmers’ Union  [2003] ECR I-0000, paragraph 37).
73. So far as the requirement that the national court’s decision should contain a sufficient description of the facts and law involved in the case is concerned, it is to be noted that its purpose is, first, to enable the Court to arrive at an interpretation of Community law which may be of use to the national court (see, inter alia, Joined Cases C-320/90, C-321/90 and C-322/90 Telemarsicabruzzo and Others  [1993] ECR I-393, paragraph 6) and, second, to give the governments of the Member States and other interested parties the opportunity to submit observations pursuant to Article 23 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice (see, in particular, Case C-67/96 Albany  [1999] ECR I-5751, paragraph 40).
83. As regards the manner in which that communication is to be made, it is common ground that that principle requires appropriate publicity to be given to the national measures adopted pursuant to a Community regulation ( Mulligan and Others , paragraph 51).  The communication to the producers concerned of the individual reference quantities being a measure which is taken in connection with the application by the competent national authorities of the Community legislation on the additional levy on milk, it must be made in compliance with the requirement of adequate publicity.
84. Nevertheless, according to the case-law, the principle of legal certainty does not prescribe any specific form of publicity, such as publication of the measures in the official journal of the Member State concerned, communication by means of publication in bulletins or individual notification of each producer (see Mulligan and Others , paragraph 51).
85. The reason why the principle of legal certainty, as a general principle of Community law, requires appropriate publicity for measures adopted by the Member States in implementation of an obligation under Community law is the obvious need to ensure that persons concerned by such measures should be able to ascertain the scope of their rights and obligations in the particular area governed by Community law ( Mulligan and Others , paragraph 52).