Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Export refunds - Regulation applicable to an application for which advance fixing had not been requested - Regulation published on the day that the export declaration was accepted by the competent customs service

(Council Regulation No 1766/92, Art. 13(3); Commission Regulations Nos 3665/87, Art. 3(1) and (2), and 1521/95)

2. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Export refunds - Fixing of amounts - One regulation followed by another with identical content and containing no reference to the earlier - Revocation of the first regulation by the second - Not revoked

(Commission Regulations Nos 1521/95 and 1576/95)

3. Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Obligation - Scope - Regulation fixing the export refunds on cereal-based compound feedingstuffs

(EC Treaty, Art. 190 (now Art. 253 EC); Commission Regulation No 1521/95)

4. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Export refunds - Regulation fixing the export refunds on cereal-based compound feedingstuffs - Invalidity - Effects

(Commission Regulations Nos 1415/95 and 1521/95)

Summary

1. It follows from the combined effect of Article 13(3) of Regulation No 1766/92 on the common organisation of the market in cereals and Article 3(1) and (2) of Regulation No 3665/87 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of export refunds on agricultural products that, if there has been no application for an advance fixing of the refund, the operative event to be taken into account in determining which regulation is applicable, and consequently the amount of the refund, is the acceptance by the competent customs service of the export declaration in which it is stated that a refund will be claimed. It follows that, if there is no request for advance fixing, the regulation which applies to an application for an export refund is that which is in force on the date of acceptance of the export declaration containing the application.

In those circumstances, Regulation No 1521/95 fixing the export refunds on cereal-based compound feedingstuffs applied to the exports for which the competent customs service accepted, on the date of its publication, export declarations stating that an export refund was going to be claimed and for which advance fixing of the export refund had not been requested.

( see paras 14, 17 and operative part 1 )

2. As regards the fixing of export refunds on cereal-based compound feedingstuffs, Regulation No 1576/95 did not revoke Regulation No 1521/95 and therefore had no effect on the applicability of the latter regulation on 30 June 1995. The fact that one regulation is followed by another with identical content and containing no reference to the earlier regulation does not lead to the conclusion that the second regulation revoked the first. The revocation of a legislative act is an exceptional measure with retrospective effects and can therefore only be explicit.

( see paras 18-19, 21 and operative part 2 )

3. The statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty (now Article 253 EC) must be appropriate to the nature of the measure in question. It must show clearly and unequivocally the reasoning of the institution which enacted 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. Furthermore, the statement of reasons for a measure is not required to specify the matters of fact or of law dealt with, provided that the measure falls within the general scheme of the body of measures of which it forms part. However, it is also accepted that, although the reasons for a decision in a line of consistent decisions may be given in a summary manner, for example by a reference to those decisions, the Community authority must give an explicit account of its reasoning if the decision goes appreciably further than the previous decisions.

Regulation No 1521/95 fixing the export refunds on cereal-based compound feedingstuffs does not satisfy that requirement and is therefore invalid. The mere reference to the possibilities and conditions for sale on the world market, to the need to avoid disturbances on the Community market and to the economic aspect of the exports cannot constitute a sufficient statement of reasons for a regulation which, like that regulation, breaks with the Commission's usual practice, which consists of fixing the amount of the refunds by reference to the difference between the prices of the products concerned on the Community market, on the one hand, and on the world market, on the other.

( see paras 27-28, 30, and operative part 3 )

4. As regards the fixing of export refunds on cereal-based compound feedingstuffs, the invalidity of Regulation No 1521/95, means that export refunds for cereal-based feedingstuffs, for which the application was made in export declarations accepted by the competent customs service on the only day when that regulation was applicable, that is on 30 June 1995, and for which advance fixing had not been requested, are to be calculated in accordance with Regulation No 1415/95.

( see para. 39, and operative part 4 )