Republic of Poland v Council of the European Union.
Date: 2007-10-23
33. In the present case, the Court considers it necessary to rule at the outset on the substance of the case.
Substance
46. In that regard, the Court has already ruled on the meaning of ‘necessary adaptations’ in the context of acts of accession, holding that the adaptation measures provided for by such acts, as a general rule, authorise only adaptations intended to render earlier Community measures applicable in the new Member States, to the exclusion of all other amendments (see, to that effect, in relation to Article 169 of the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Norway, 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 (OJ 1994 C 241, p. 21), Case C‑259/95 Parliament  v Council  [1997] ECR I‑5303, paragraphs 14 and 19; and, in respect of Article 57 of the Act of Accession, Case C‑413/04 Parliament  v Council  [2006] ECR I‑11221, paragraphs 31 to 38, and Case C‑414/04 Parliament  v Council  [2006] ECR I‑11279, paragraphs 29 to 36).
69. The concern not to slow down the necessary restructuring of the agricultural sector in those Member States and not to create significant disparities in income or social imbalances by the granting of aid not proportionate to the income level of farmers and the general population was applicable to for the whole of the agricultural sector, and therefore to all direct aid, existing or prospective. Further, if the system of phasing‑in of direct payments had been intended to apply only to certain crops, namely those for which direct payments had already been set up before adoption of the Act of Accession, there would have been a risk that the farmers of those Member States would have abandoned them in order to concentrate on the crops for which they could immediately obtain full direct payments.
86. In that regard it is sufficient to recall that the principle of equal treatment requires that comparable situations must not be treated differently and that different situations must not be treated in the same way unless such treatment is objectively justified (Joined Cases C‑87/03 and C‑100/03 Spain  v Council  [2006] ECR I‑2915, paragraph 48 and case-law cited there).
87. There is no need to consider the argument of the Council that the contested decision cannot be discriminatory since it stems directly from the Act of Accession, since it is undisputed in the present case that the agricultural situation in the new Member States was radically different from that in the old Member States, which justified a gradual application of Community rules, in particular those rules relating to direct support schemes, in order not to disrupt the necessary on‑going restructuring in the agricultural sector of the new Member States.
88. It follows from these considerations that the applicant is not in a situation comparable to that of the old Member States which have unrestricted access to the direct support schemes, and that prevents any valid comparison being made (see, by analogy, Case C‑73/90 Spain  v Council  [1992] ECR I‑5191, paragraph 34).