Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Discrimination between producers or consumers - Co-responsibility levy in the cereals sector - Exemption for cereals used on the producer' s farm after processing - Exemption subject to cereals being processed on the farm - Unlawful

( EEC Treaty, second subparagraph of Art . 40 ( 3 ); Commission Regulation No 2040/86, second subparagraph of Art . 1 ( 2 ), as amended by Regulation No 2572/86 )

2 . References for a preliminary ruling - Assessment of validity - Declaration that a regulation is invalid - Effects - Application by analogy of the second paragraph of Article 174 of the Treaty - Invalidity resulting from discrimination - Provisional maintenance in force of the contested scheme on the basis of non-discriminatory rules

( EEC Treaty, Art . 174 ( 2 ) and Art . 177 )

Summary

1 . The objective of the Community regulations governing the co-responsibility levy in the cereals sector, which is to limit the structural surpluses on the market, provides justification for imposing the levy only on the processing of cereals placed on the market, since quantities of cereals remaining in a closed circuit do not contribute to the creation of surpluses .

The second subparagraph of Article 1 ( 2 ) of Regulation No 2040/86, as amended by Regulation No 2572/86, is invalid in so far as it exempts from the co-responsibility levy the first-stage processing of cereals carried out on the producer' s own holding by means of the machinery of the farm, provided that the products of the processing are used on that holding, but does not provide for such exemption for first-stage processing carried out off the producer' s agricultural holding or by means of machinery which does not form part of the agricultural installations of the farm, where the products of the processing are used on that farm .

2 . Where the Court finds that a regulation is discriminatory, in so far as the rules for exemption from a levy for which it provides do not extend to certain categories of economic operators, a straightforward declaration that the contested provision was invalid would have the result that, pending the adoption of new provisions, all exemptions would be precluded . In such a case, the second paragraph of Article 174 of the EEC Treaty, under which the Court may state which of the effects of the regulation which it has declared void are to be considered definitive, must be applied by analogy for the same reasons of legal certainty as those which underlie that provision .