Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . Annulment of measures - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation suspending the issue of import licences - Importers whose goods are in transit to the Community - Action admissible

( EEC Treaty, Art . 173, second paragraph; Council Regulation ( EEC ) No 2707/72, Art . 3(3 ); Commission Regulations ( EEC ) Nos 962/88, 984/88 and 1040/88 )

2 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Fruit and vegetables - Imports from non-member countries - Community protective measures - Suspension of the issue of import licences - Account to be taken of the special position of products in transit - Obligation to respect legitimate expectations of traders - Scope - Breach - Suspension illegal

( Council Regulation No 2707/72, Art . 3(3 ); Commission Regulation ( EEC ) No 346/88, Art . 3(3 ) and Commission Regulations Nos 962/88, 984/88 and 1040/88 )

3 . Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Legislative measure involving choices of economic policy - Sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law - Protective measures in trade with non-member countries taken without regard to the position of traders whose goods are in transit to the Community - Liability

( EEC Treaty, Art . 215, second paragraph; Council Regulation No 2707/72, Art . 3(3 ) )

4 . Non-contractual liability - Damage - Compensation - Claim for interest - Permissible .

( EEC Treaty, Art . 215, second paragraph )

Summary

1 . A regulation adopted in the fruit and vegetable sector suspending the issue of import licences for products originating in a non-member country is of direct and individual concern, within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty, to importers whose goods were in transit to the Community at the time of its entry into force, in so far as it applies to that category of goods . It concerns them directly inasmuch as it requires national authorities to reject pending applications for import licences, leaving them no discretion; it concerns them individually inasmuch as the persons concerned constitute a restricted group which is sufficiently well defined in relation to any other importer of the same product and cannot be extended after the suspensory measures take effect, and inasmuch as they derive specific protection from Article 3(3 ) of Regulation No 2707/72 which they must be able to enforce in legal proceedings .

2 . Article 3(3 ) of Regulation No 2707/72, according to which protective measures in the fruit and vegetable sector must take account of the special position of products in transit to the Community, has the effect of enabling an importer whose goods are in that situation to rely on a legitimate expectation that in the absence of an overriding public interest no suspensory measures will be applied against him .

In order to comply with the particular requirements of that provision, it was not sufficient for the Commission simply to reserve expressly the possibility of taking protective measures, as it did in Regulation No 346/88; it should have indicated the situations in which the public interest might justify the application of protective measures with regard to goods in transit . In the absence of such protection for traders, Regulations Nos 962/88, 984/88 and 1040/88 must be annulled in so far as they concern goods in transit .

3 . The adoption by the Commission, without invoking any overriding public interest, of protective measures in the fruit and vegetable sector concerning imports from non-member countries without taking any account whatsoever of the position of traders whose goods are in transit to the Community, thus disregarding the legitimate expectation created by Article 3(3 ) of Regulation No 2707/72, constitutes a sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law giving rise to non-contractual liability on the part of the Community .

Any damage resulting from the adoption of such measures in those circumstances goes beyond the limits of the economic risks inherent in the business in issue inasmuch as the purpose of the abovementioned provision is precisely to limit those risks with regard to goods in transit .

4 . A claim for interest relating to the non-contractual liability of the Community under the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty must be considered in the light of the principles common to the legal systems of the Member States to which that provision refers . According to those principles a claim for interest is, as a general rule, permissible .