Keywords
Summary

Keywords

++++

1.Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Discrimination between producers or consumers - Prohibition - Scope - Discretion of the Community legislature with regard to the common agricultural policy - Judicial review - Limits

( EEC Treaty, Arts 40 and 43 )

2.Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Choice for the Member States between Formula A and Formula B - Different financial implications for the producers - Adjustments introduced in connection with detailed rules of application - Discrimination - None

( EEC Treaty, Art . 40(3 ), second subparagraph; Council Regulations Nos 804/68, Art . 5c(1 ), and 857/84, Arts 1(1 ) and 4a )

3.Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Detailed rules of application - Specific provisions applicable in certain Member States whose milk production exhibits specific features - Discrimination - None

( EEC Treaty, Art . 40(3 ), second subparagraph; Council Regulation No 857/84, Art . 3(3 ) as amended, and Art . 10(2 ) )

4.Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Implementation at regional level - Concept of "region" - Region and the whole of the territory of a Member State placed on the same footing - Whether permissible - Compatibility with the need to take account of structural and natural disparities between regions - No connection with the arrangements for less-favoured farming areas

( EEC Treaty, Art . 39(2)(a ); Council Regulations Nos 804/68, Art . 5c(1 ) and 857/84, Art . 1(2 ); Council Directives 75/268 and 75/269 )

Summary

1.The prohibition of discrimination laid down in Article 40(3 ) of the Treaty is merely a specific enunciation of the general principle of equality which is one of the fundamental principles of Community law and which precludes comparable situations from being treated in a different manner unless the difference in treatment is objectively justified .

However, judicial review of compliance with that principle must take account of the fact that, in matters concerning the common agricultural policy, the Community legislature has a broad discretion which corresponds to the political responsibilities imposed upon it by Articles 40 and 43 of the Treaty .

More specifically, where the Community legislature is obliged, in connection with the adoption of rules, to assess their future effects which cannot be accurately foreseen, its assessment is open to criticism by the courts only if it appears manifestly incorrect in the light of the information available to the legislature at the time of the adoption of the rules in question .

2.In leaving the choice to the Member States, for the implementation of the additional levy on milk, between Formula A, providing for the levy to be charged to the producers, and Formula B, providing for the levy to be charged to the purchasers, the Community legislature has not infringed the prohibition of discrimination between Community producers . It was reasonable for the Council to take the view that, in connection with that choice, which was justified in principle by the need to ensure that the system was fully effective throughout the Community in view of the diversity of milk production structures and in milk collecting in the different regions of the Community, to fix the levy under Formula B at 100% of the target price for milk, as against 75% under Formula A, would neutralize the advantage which producers subject to Formula B derive from the possibility of offsetting at the level of the dairies and would thus ensure equivalence in the actual levels of the levy under the two formulas . Furthermore, the choice given to the Member States under both formulas of allocating the non-utilized reference quantities of producers or purchasers to producers or purchasers in the same region and, if necessary, in other regions, also has the effect of moderating the advantages derived by producers under Formula B from the possibility of offsetting at the level of the dairies .

3.The economic structures of both Italy and Greece show certain particularities, by comparison with the other Member States, especially as regards the production and marketing of milk . The specific provisions on the adjustment of individual reference quantities in connection with exceptional events, which are applicable in Italy, and the detailed rules of application for Formula B, which are applicable in Greece, meet the need to take into consideration the specific situation of those States with regard to the application of the additional levy on milk . For that reason, the resultant difference in treatment between producers established in Italy and Greece and producers established in the other Member States is objectively justified and does not therefore constitute unlawful discrimination between Community producers .

4.Article 1(2 ) of Regulation No 857/84 must be interpreted as meaning that a Member State may treat the whole of its territory as a single region within the meaning of Article 5c(1 ) of Regulation No 804/68, even if the territory is not a geographical unit in which the natural conditions, structures of production and average herd yields are comparable, unless such a decision is manifestly unsuited to the structures of the Member State in question .

It does not give rise to an infringement of Article 39(2 ) of the Treaty, which provides that account is to be taken of structural and natural disparities between the various agricultural regions, since the rules for implementing the additional levy on milk which comprise that provision are sufficiently flexible to enable the Member States, where they apply it, to take due account of those disparities .

Nor is there any breach of Directives 75/268 and 75/269 which have a specific purpose, namely the grant of State aid for the benefit of agricultural holdings located in certain less-favoured areas which are listed in accordance with Community criteria and under a Community procedure; that purpose is distinct from that pursued by the Community rules governing the additional levy on milk, with the result that those directives cannot be interpreted as requiring that the regions to which they apply must constitute distinct regions for the purposes of Article 1(2 ) of Regulation No 857/84 .