Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Flax and hemp - Aid to hemp production - Areas which may receive aid - Dutch version of the provision at issue - Easily detectable error

(Commission Regulation No 1164/89, Art. 4(a))

2. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Flax and hemp - Aid to hemp production - Meaning of harvest after seed formation - Restrictive interpretation

(Commission Regulation No 1164/89, Art. 4(a))

3. Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Obligation - Scope - Decision relating to the clearance of accounts in respect of expenditure financed by the EAGGF

(EC Treaty, Art. 190 (now Art. 253 EC))

Summary

1. The reference to flax only in the first sentence and in the third indent of Article 4(a) of the Dutch version of Regulation No 1164/89, as amended by Regulation No 1469/94, constitutes an easily detectable error.

First, the Dutch version of that provision is different from the other language versions in that it refers, at the beginning of the first sentence, only to flax and not to hemp, whereas the other language versions are worded generally and do not mention expressly either of those plants. The same observation applies to the third indent, except in the German version. However, in the sentence that follows immediately after the third indent, the Dutch version mentions, as do all the other language versions, different maximum cutting heights for flax and for hemp. Secondly, Regulation No 1164/89 also mentions in its title and in almost all of its provisions both plants in the same way and deals with them in largely similar ways. Where they require to be treated differently, that is clear, as in Articles 2 and 3 of the regulation, from the wording of the text.

( see paras 25-27 )

2. The requirements laid down in Article 4(a) of Regulation No 1164/89 laying down detailed rules concerning the aid for fibre flax and hemp, as amended by Regulation No 1469/94, must be interpreted with particular rigour, given that hemp is a plant which may be dangerous to public health and that the legislation relating to aid for the production of hemp takes account of the sensitive nature of that plant in laying down very strict requirements as regards the conditions for granting aid and the monitoring to be carried out. As stated in the third recital in the preamble to Regulation No 1164/89, fraud must be prevented.

As regards the concept of harvest after seed formation, that concept must be construed in such a way as to prevent, as far as possible, the plant from being harvested when its tetrahydrocannabinol content may still pose a danger to public health. It cannot therefore be held that harvest of the hemp seed when in its milky state, prior to the flowering of the plant or immediately thereafter, satisfies the requirement of harvesting after seed formation imposed by Article 4(a) of Regulation No 1164/89, as amended.

( see paras 33-34 )

3. The decisions taken by the Commission concerning the clearance of the EAGGF accounts do not require detailed reasons if they are taken on the basis either of summary reports or of correspondence between the Member State and the Commission.

( see para. 39 )