Katholische Kirchengemeinde St. Martinus Elten v Landwirtschaftskammer Rheinland.
Date: 1997-01-23
14 The principle that a reference quantity is attached to the land follows from Article 2 of Regulation No 857/84 read together with Article 12(c) and (d) of that regulation.
17 The definitions of `producer' and, consequently, `holding' in Article 12(c) and (d) of Regulation No 857/84 show, according to the judgment in Case C-236/90 Maier v Freistaat Bayern [1992] ECR I-4483, paragraph 11, that the term `producer' refers only to farmers who, for the purposes of milk production, operate a set of production units on their own account.
18 If in its judgment in Maier (paragraphs 11 and 12) the Court held that it is the lessee, not the lessor, who is the producer, the same must apply in the case of a farmer who produces a quantity of milk from the parcels of owned and leased land which he operates himself in his capacity of owner and lessee respectively.
21 It follows from the judgment in Wachauf v Bundesamt für Ernährung und Forstwirtschaft [1989] ECR 2609, paragraph 9, that Article 12(d) of Regulation No 857/84 relates to all production units which satisfy two conditions: namely, that they must be operated by a producer, that is to say, a person who sells milk or other milk products directly to the consumer or who supplies the purchaser (Article 12(c) of Regulation No 857/84), and must be located within the geographical territory of the Community.
24 This principle, that the reference quantity is attached to the land which was being operated at the time when the reference quantity was allocated, is in fact reflected in the general principle that, in the case of the partial transfer of a holding, the reference quantity is to be allocated to the transferee in proportion to the land transferred (judgment in Case C-81/91 Twijnstra v Minister van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij [1993] ECR I-2455, paragraph 25).
27 On the assumption - which is not contradicted by any of the documents in the case - that in 1981 the producer's entire milk production, including the part corresponding to the land located in the other Member State, was supplied to a dairy in the Member State concerned, it is - unlike in Case C-351/92 Graff v Hauptzollamt Köln-Rheinau [1994] ECR I-3361 - included in the calculation of that Member State's guaranteed total quantity. Through the subsequent grant of a reference quantity corresponding to the quantity thus taken into account in the determination of the guaranteed total quantity, any risk of the guaranteed total quantity being exceeded appears to be excluded.
28 The answer to the first part of the question must therefore be that the reference quantity allocated to a producer by a Member State in 1984 under the additional levy system is attached to all the land owned or leased which is operated by the producer for milk production, even if part of the land is situated in another Member State.
Rules applicable on termination of a lease
30 As to expiry of a lease, the Court in the Wachauf judgment, paragraph 13, interpreted Article 7(1) and (4) of Regulation No 857/84, considered as a whole, as meaning that the Community legislature intended that at the end of the lease the reference quantity should in principle revert to the lessor who retakes possession of the holding, subject, however, to the Member States' power to allocate all or part of the reference quantity to the departing lessee.
31 More specifically, on the basis of Article 5(3) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1371/84 of 16 May 1984 laying down detailed rules for the application of the additional levy referred to in Article 5c of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 (OJ 1984 L 132, p. 11), which was applicable at the material time and which is now point 3 of the first paragraph of Article 7 of Regulation No 1546/88, the Court held in Wachauf, paragraph 15, that the surrender of a tenanted holding on the expiry of the lease has comparable legal effects, within the meaning of Article 5(3) of Regulation No 1371/84, to those brought about by the transfer of the holding on the grant of the lease, since both transactions entail a change in the possession of the production units in question within the contractual relations created by the lease. Consequently, the surrender, upon the expiry of the lease, of leased agricultural production units is a case covered by Article 5(3) of Regulation No 1371/84, provided that on the grant of the lease their transfer falls under Article 5(1), which is the case where a holding within the meaning of Article 12(d) of Regulation No 857/84, as interpreted above in reply to the Verwaltungsgericht's question, is involved.
32 It follows that, while questions relating to the lease, in particular its termination, are governed by the national law applicable in the main proceedings, the consequences as regards the reference quantities are prescribed by the Community rules on the additional levy.