Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Oils and fats - Subsidy for oil seeds - Amount required to correspond to the difference between the target price and the world market price - Fixing at an excessively high level following the application of an incorrect exchange rate for the ECU - Illegality

(Council Regulation No 136/66, Article 27(1); Commission Regulation No 735/85)

2. Acts of the institutions - Withdrawal - Unlawful measures - Conditions

Summary

1. Subsidies for oil seeds granted pursuant to Article 27(1) of Regulation No 136/66 are in breach of that provision whenever the actual amount of those subsidies exceeds the difference between the target price and the world market price for a particular species. It follows that Regulation No 735/85 fixing the amount of the subsidy in that sector is invalid in so far as it uses an incorrect exchange rate for converting the ECU into the currency of the processing country and, as a result, fixes the final aid at a level which exceeds the difference between those two prices.

2. While it must be acknowledged that any Community institution which establishes that a measure which it has just adopted is tainted with illegality has the right to withdraw it within a reasonable period, with retroactive effect, that right may be restricted by the need to fulfil the legitimate expectations of a beneficiary of the measure, who has been led to rely on the lawfulness thereof.

The withdrawal of a measure vitiated by a manifest error which cannot have escaped the attention of the traders concerned, carried out less than three months after a judgment of the Court has revealed the need for it, is not open to criticism in the light of the above requirements.