J. Slob v Productschap Zuivel.
Date: 2006-09-14
25. The Court did not give a ruling on whether the Member States are competent to enact legislation imposing reporting obligations on milk producers established within their territory that go beyond those in the provision to be interpreted since that issue was not the subject-matter of the question referred ( Slob,  paragraph 30).
32. Bearing in mind the very purpose of an adversarial procedure, which is to prevent the Court from being influenced in its decision by an argument which the parties have been unable to discuss, the Court may of its own motion, on a proposal from the Advocate General, or at the request of the parties, order that the oral procedure be reopened, in accordance with Article 61 of its Rules of Procedure, if it considers that it lacks sufficient information or that the case must be decided on the basis of an argument which has not been debated between the parties (see the order of 28 April 2004 in Case C-127/02 Waddenvereniging and Vogelbeschermingsvereniging , not published in the ECR, paragraph 8; Case C‑470/00 P Parliament  v Ripa di Meana and Others  [2004] ECR I-4167, paragraph 33; and Case C-432/04 Commission  v Cresson  [2006] ECR I-0000, paragraph 50).
34. It should further be noted that Article 234 EC establishes direct cooperation between the Court and the courts and tribunals of the Member States by way of a non-contentious procedure excluding any initiative of the parties, who are merely invited to be heard in the course of that procedure (see, to that effect, Case C‑364/92 SAT Fluggesellschaft  [1994] ECR I-43, paragraph 9).
38. According to the eighth recital in the preamble to Regulation No 536/93, the Member States must have suitable means of conducting ex-post checks to verify whether, and if so to what extent, the levy has been collected in accordance with the provisions in force. Such checks are provided for by Article 7 of that regulation in order to ensure the accuracy of the statements of collection and declarations of direct sales drawn up by purchasers and producers (Joined Cases C-231/00, C‑303/00 and C-451/00 Cooperativa Lattepiù and Others  [2004] ECR I‑2869, paragraph 70).
41. Nevertheless, when adopting measures to implement Community legislation, national authorities must exercise their discretion in compliance with the general principles of Community law, which include the principles of proportionality, legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations ( Cooperativa Lattepiù and Others,  paragraph 57).
47. Nor can the principles of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations preclude supervisory measures such as those at issue in the main proceedings. The first sentence of Article 7(1) of Regulation No 536/93 read in conjunction with the eighth recital in the preamble to that regulation shows in a clear and precise manner that the list of measures set out in Article 7 is not exhaustive and that the Member States are indeed required, where necessary, to take additional measures (see, with regard to the criteria governing the principle of legal certainty, Case C‑94/05 Emsland-Stärke [2006] ECR I-0000, paragraph 43). Moreover, the Court has held that the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations cannot be relied upon against an unambiguous provision of Community law or the conduct of a national authority which is consistent with such a provision (see in this regard Emsland-Stärke, paragraph 31). A trader cannot therefore legitimately expect not to be subject to supplementary supervisory measures.