Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Export refunds - Products attracting export refunds - Reference made to `preparations with a basis of coffee' within the meaning of subheading 2101 10 of the Combined Nomenclature - Reference also made to preparations with a basis of extracts, essences or concentrates of coffee

(Council Regulation No 804/68, Art. 17(1))

2 Customs union - Application of the customs rules - Right of action - Suspension of implementation - Article 244 of the Community Customs Code - Scope - Decision requiring reimbursement of an export refund - Excluded

(Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 244)

3 Acts of the institutions - Legality of a Community act challenged collaterally before a national court in proceedings directed against a national implementation measure - Grant of suspension of implementation of the national measure - Whether permissible - Conditions - Prima facie case - Matter submitted to the Court by a reference for a preliminary ruling on a question of validity - Serious and irreparable damage - Account to be taken of the Community interest - Relevant judgments of the Community judicature to be respected

(EC Treaty, Arts 177, 185 and 189)

4 Preliminary rulings - Reference to the Court - Legality of a Community act challenged collaterally before a national court in proceedings directed against a national implementation measure - Suspension of implementation of the national measure and reference for a preliminary ruling on the validity of the Community act - Leave granted by the national court to appeal against its decision - Whether permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 177, second and third paras)

Summary

5 Article 17(1) of Regulation No 804/68, on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products, as amended by Regulation No 3904/87, which empowers the Community to grant export refunds on milk products included in the composition of other products, read in conjunction with its annex, which includes in the list of products attracting refunds `preparations with a basis of coffee' and refers in this regard to subheading 2101 10 of the Combined Nomenclature (1992), is to be interpreted as allowing export refunds to be granted in respect of milk products contained in both preparations with a basis of coffee and preparations with a basis of extracts, essences or concentrates of coffee.

6 Article 244 of Regulation No 2913/92, establishing the Community Customs Code, which lays down the conditions under which suspension of implementation of decisions taken by customs authorities in relation to the application of customs rules may be granted, is not applicable to demands for repayment of export refunds. Export refunds constitute the external aspect of the common agricultural pricing policy within the Community and cannot therefore be regarded as measures governed by customs rules.

7 A national court may suspend implementation of a national administrative decision based on a Community act only if certain conditions are satisfied; it must entertain serious doubts as to the validity of the Community act; if the validity of the contested act is not already in issue before the Court of Justice, it must itself refer the question to the Court of Justice; there must be urgency, in that the interim relief must be necessary to avoid serious and irreparable damage from being caused to the party seeking the relief; and the national court must take due account of the Community interest. It is for the national court to decide, in accordance with its own rules of procedure, which is the most appropriate way of obtaining all relevant information on the Community act in question. Finally, in its assessment of all those conditions, the national court must respect any decisions of the Court of Justice or the Court of First Instance ruling on the lawfulness of the Community act or on an application for measures seeking similar interim relief at Community level.

8 The second paragraph of Article 177 of the Treaty does not preclude a national court which has ordered suspension of implementation of a national administrative decision based on a Community act and which has, in accordance with the obligation incumbent on it, referred to the Court for a preliminary ruling a question on the validity of the Community act from granting leave to appeal against its decision.

Although the obligation to make a reference to the Court is founded on the necessity to ensure that Community law is applied uniformly and to safeguard the Court's exclusive jurisdiction to rule on the validity of an act of Community law, the need to comply with those overriding considerations is not affected by the fact that an appeal can be lodged against the decision of the national court, since, if that decision were to be set aside or reversed on appeal, the preliminary ruling procedure would have no further purpose and Community law would again be fully applicable. Secondly, the possibility of lodging such an appeal does not prevent implementation of the preliminary ruling procedure by the court ruling at last instance, which is obliged, under the third paragraph of Article 177 of the Treaty, to make a reference if it has doubts concerning the interpretation or validity of Community law.