Giuseppe Busolin and Others v Ispettorato Centrale Repressione Frodi - Ufficio di Conegliano - Ministero delle Risorse agricole, alimentari e forestali.
Date: 2000-10-19
3 For an account of the Community and national legislation, reference should be made to the judgment of the Court in Case C-375/96 Zaninotto v Ministero delle Risorse Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali [1998] ECR I-6629, where the same legislation was at issue.
Main proceedings
8 It should be noted at the outset that in its judgment in Zaninotto, cited above, which was given on a preliminary reference from the Pretura Circondariale di Treviso (Treviso District Magistrates' Court) and related to identical facts, the Court held that examination of the numerous questions raised in that case had disclosed no factor of such a kind as to affect the validity of the legislation at issue allocating, for the 1993/94 wine year, the quantities to be distilled in the context of the compulsory distillation of table wine and setting the total quantity to be distilled by Italy at 12 150 000 hectolitres. The Court held, in particular, that the reference percentage of 85%, provided for initially by the third subparagraph of Article 39(3) of Regulation No 822/87, could lawfully be adjusted by the Commission in the exercise of its powers to 55.01% for the 1993/94 wine year, in order to take account of the change in consumption which had decreased significantly over time (Zaninotto, paragraph 25 et seq.). Furthermore, as regards the application of that percentage, the Italian Republic did not suffer from different treatment in relation to the other Member States (Zaninotto, paragraph 31).
9 The present case again concerns the legality of the adjustment to the reference percentage of 85% made by the Commission for the 1993/94 wine year, on the basis of which it set the quantity to be distilled by each Member State. Before the national court, Mr Busolin and the other wine-growers raised further, similar, questions relating to the legality of the obligation to distil imposed on Italy. The national court found that those questions were new in relation to Zaninotto and not manifestly unfounded. For that reason it considered it necessary to make a further reference to the Court.
10 Although the angle from which the questions in the present case are asked is different from that in Zaninotto, they none the less concern the same aspects of the relevant Community legislation and of its effects on wine-growers in Italy, a fact which the national court has acknowledged.
11 The aspects pleaded in the present case, that is to say:
- a significant difference in the ratio between the quantities available and normal consumption for the 1993/94 wine year compared with the reference years was not established in adopting Article 1 of Regulation No 343/94 (first and fourth questions) and the duty to state reasons was therefore infringed (second question),
- the adjustment of the reference percentage calculated by the Commission for the 1993/94 wine year is misconceived (third question),
- the method of calculating the adjustment of the reference percentage, as established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1972/87 of 2 July 1987 amending Regulation (EEC) No 822/87 (OJ 1987 L 184, p. 26), is unlawful (fifth question), and
- the general allegation that the scheme for the compulsory distillation of table wine in its entirety is, and always has been, unsuited to market conditions (sixth question),
are not such as to affect the conclusion reached by the Court in Zaninotto and recalled in paragraph 8 of this judgment, namely that the compulsory distillation scheme is valid.