The Queen v Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce, ex parte British Sugar plc.
Date: 2002-01-10
57 The time-limit set by Article 3(2) of Regulation No 2670/81 is mandatory and allows of no exception.
58 None the less, there may be some justification for exceeding the time-limit where an irregularity has occurred. The time-limit fixed by Article 3(2) of the regulation may therefore be exceeded where the competent national authority does not know the exact details of an undertaking's sugar production and where that lack of knowledge may reasonably be attributed to the undertaking, because it has not acted in good faith and has not complied with all the relevant provisions.
59 It is for the national court to make the necessary inquiries and to draw the appropriate conclusions therefrom, taking into consideration, inter alia, how far the competent national authority was aware of the situation in question and the care and attention exercised by that authority.
63 It follows from those considerations that the answer to be given to the fifth question must be that as a matter of principle the competent national authority is not authorised to demand that an undertaking pay a charge pursuant to Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2670/81 where it has not informed the undertaking of that requirement within the period prescribed by Article 3(2) of that regulation. Exceeding the time-limit may be permissible where the competent national authority, without negligence on its part, did not know the details of the undertaking's sugar production and where that lack of knowledge may reasonably be attributed to the undertaking, because it has not acted in good faith and has not complied with all the relevant provisions.
The sixth question
68 According to the ninth recital in the preamble to the basic regulation, the competent authorities must be put in a position to monitor movements in trade with third countries continuously in order to enable them to assess trends thereof and, where appropriate, to apply such measures provided for in that regulation as may prove necessary. To that end, provision is made for the issue of licences. It follows that, in order to ensure such monitoring, an export declaration cannot be accepted after export has taken place.
69 As regards the concept of force majeure used in Article 4(4) of Regulation No 3665/87, it must be emphasised that it is to be understood to refer to unusual circumstances outside the control of the exporter (see, to that effect, Case 11/70 Internationale Handelsgesellschaft [1970] ECR 1125, paragraph 23). An exporter's mistake as to the classification of sugar does not amount to such circumstances.
73 Having regard to the foregoing considerations, the answer to be given to the sixth question must be that the competent national authority may, without infringing Articles 3 and 4 of Regulation No 3665/87 or the general principles of Community law, refuse to accept retrospectively an export declaration presented for the purpose of obtaining export refunds and of extending the period allowed for supplying proof of export where, because the undertaking has applied for and obtained from that authority a C sugar export licence for sugar which it was impossible to regard as C sugar, the undertaking has neither applied for nor obtained the export refunds to which it would have been entitled if the sugar had been exported as A or B sugar.
The second, third and fourth questions