Bábolna Mezőgazdasági Termelő, Fejlesztő és Kereskedelmi Zrt. v Mezőgazdasági és Vidékfejlesztési Hivatal Központi Szerve.
Date: 2011-06-09
15. Article 143b of Regulation No 1782/2003, headed ‘Single area payment scheme’, provides at paragraphs 1 to 3:
‘1. The new Member States may decide not later than the date of accession to replace the direct payments during the period of application referred to in paragraph 9 with a single area payment which shall be calculated according to paragraph 2.
2. The single area payment shall be made once a year. It shall be calculated by dividing the annual financial envelope established according to paragraph 3 by the agricultural area of each new Member State established according to paragraph 4.
3. For any new Member State, the Commission shall establish an annual financial envelope:
– as the sum of the funds that would be available in respect of the calendar year concerned for granting direct payments in the new Member State,
– according to the relevant Community rules and on the basis of the quantative parameters, such as base areas, premium ceilings and Maximum Guaranteed Quantities (MGQ), specified in the Act of Accession and subsequent Community legislation for each direct payment, and
– adjusted using the relevant percentage specified in Article 143a for the gradual introduction of direct payments.’
31. As the Court has a duty to interpret all provisions of EU law which national courts need in order to decide the actions pending before them, even if those provisions are not expressly indicated in the questions referred to the Court by those courts (see, inter alia, Case C‑45/06 Campina [2007] ECR I‑2089, paragraph 31), the questions referred for a preliminary ruling must be understood as relating to Regulation No 1782/2003 or falling within the context of that regulation.
All of the questions referred
33. Regulation No 1782/2003 establishes, inter alia, pursuant to Article 1 thereof, common rules on the subject of direct payments under financial support schemes relating to the CAP, income aid to farmers (single payment scheme) and simplified and transitory income aid for farmers of the new Member States (single area payment scheme).
34. In accordance with Articles 143a and 143b of Regulation No 1782/2003, direct payments or, if appropriate, the single area payment scheme are to be progressively introduced in the new Member States. The purpose of that progressive introduction of EU aid in the new Member States is 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 (see, by analogy, Case C‑273/04 Poland v Council [2007] ECR I‑8925, paragraph 69).
37. However, having regard to the fact that the adoption of national legislation such as that applicable in the main proceedings forms part of the CAP, such legislation cannot be established or applied in such a way as to compromise the objectives pursued by that policy (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑230/09 and C‑231/09 Kurt und Thomas Etling and Others [2011] ECR I-0000, paragraph 75), and more particularly those envisaged by the aid schemes provided for by Regulation No 1782/2003.