Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Bananas - Import arrangements - Tariff quota - Transitional measures adopted by the Commission following the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden - Legal basis - Article 149 of the Act of Accession - Breach of the principle of non-discrimination - None

(EC Treaty, Art. 40(3); Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, Arts 137(2) and 149; Council Regulation No 404/93, Art. 19; Commission Regulations Nos 3303/94, 479/95 and 1219/95)

2 Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Obligation - Scope

(EC Treaty, Art. 190)

Summary

3 When it adopted Regulations Nos 3303/94, 479/95 and 1219/95, which provide, for the first three quarters following the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, that the competent authorities of those Member States are to authorize the operators established on their territory who have imported bananas during the preceding years to import bananas originating in third countries up to a limit of certain specific quotas and which thereby derogate from the common organization of the markets introduced by Regulation No 404/93, the Commission validly based itself on Article 149 of the Act of Accession which authorizes it to adopt, for a limited period, the transitional measures necessary to facilitate the transition from the existing regime in the new Member States to that resulting from application of the common organization of the markets.

Article 149 allows for derogation from the principle laid down in Article 137(2) of the Act of Accession that the common organization is to be fully applicable in the new Member States from 1 January 1995, by subjecting the measures for which it provides to a single condition - need to facilitate that transition. That condition was fulfilled where inclusion of the operators from the new Member States in the tariff quota set for the Community of Twelve would have led to a reduction of import entitlement for the operators of the 12 Member States, the allocation of insufficient licences to operators in the new Member States and a shortage of bananas in the Community as well as higher prices, all of which are consequences incompatible with the objectives of the Council Regulation.

Moreover, the subjection of operators in the new Member States to arrangements different from those applying to operators in the Member States of the Community of Twelve, in that they do not provide for application of the allocation formula laid down in Article 19 of Regulation No 404/93, does not infringe the principle of non-discrimination laid down in Article 40(3) of the Treaty. The factual and legal situation in the new Member States was different from that prevailing in the Member States of the Community of Twelve, given that, for the abovementioned reasons, the setting on a transitional basis of a specific quota was required and that, in view of the fact that operators in the new Member States fell into a single category, application of the allocation formula would have led to serious supply problems.

4 The statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty must be appropriate to the nature of the measure in question. It must show clearly and unequivocally the reasoning of the institution which adopted the measure so as to inform the persons concerned of the justification for the measure adopted and to enable the Court to exercise its powers of review. The statement of the reasons for a measure is not, however, required to specify the matters of fact or of law dealt with, provided that it falls within the general scheme of the body of measures of which it forms part.