2005/474/ECEC: Commission Decision of 14 December 2004 concerning the levy on meat purchases (rendering levy) implemented in France (notified under document number C(2004) 4770)

• Published date: 08 July 2005
• Subject Matter: aiuti degli Stati,ayudas concedidas por los Estados,aides accordées par les États
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 176, 08 luglio 2005,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 176, 08 de julio de 2005,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 176, 08 juillet 2005

8.7.2005 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 176/1

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COMMISSION DECISION

of 14 December 2004

concerning the levy on meat purchases (rendering levy) implemented in France

(notified under document number C(2004) 4770)

(Only the French text is authentic)

(2005/474/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 88(2) thereof,

Having called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to the provision cited above (1) and having regard to their comments,

Whereas:

I. PROCEDURE

(1) Following a complaint, the Commission asked the French authorities on 15 April 1999 for information concerning a levy on meat purchases (hereinafter the rendering levy) to finance rendering activities on French territory. The French authorities replied by letter dated 12 May 1999.

(2) The Commission had already initiated the infringement proceedings provided for in Article 226 of the Treaty against the rendering levy (2). A letter of formal notice had been sent to France on 29 July 1998. This was followed by a reasoned opinion on 18 September 2000. The Commission decided to drop the proceedings on 26 June 2002.

(3) The measure was entered in the register of non-notified aid measures under number NN 17/2001. An addendum to the complaint was received in March 2001. In the meantime, the Commission received another complaint raising the same points as the first.

(4) By letter dated 10 July 2002, the Commission notified France of its decision to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty with respect to the rendering levy.

(5) The Commission Decision to initiate the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (3). The Commission asked the other Member States and interested parties to submit their comments on the aid scheme.

(6) The French authorities sent their comments by letter dated 10 October 2002. The Commission received comments from third parties, which were forwarded to the French authorities by letter dated 11 February 2003 and to which the French authorities replied by letter dated 9 April 2003. The French authorities were asked for additional information by letter dated 14 July 2004, which was sent by letter dated 23 September 2004.

(7) This Decision concerns only the financing of the public rendering service (hereinafter referred to as the PRS) between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2002, the year in which the investigation procedure was initiated. The financing of the PRS from 1 January 2003 is being dealt with under State Aid No NN 8/2004.

(8) The rendering levy was abolished as from 1 January 2004. The PRS is now financed by the proceeds of a ‘slaughter levy’, against which the Commission did not raise any objections (4). During examination of that levy, the French authorities sent the Commission information that was relevant to the present case, in particular by letter dated 29 December 2003.

II. DESCRIPTION

1. THE RENDERING LEVY

(9) The rendering levy was introduced by Article 302bis ZD of the French Code général des impôts (General Tax Code), itself introduced by Article 1 of French Law No 96-1139 of 26 December 1996 on the collection and destruction of animal carcases and slaughterhouse waste and amending the Code rural (Rural Code) (5). Under that provision, the levy entered into force on 1 January 1997.

(10) Law No 96-1139 amended Article 264 of the French Code rural, which now lays down that ‘the collection and destruction of animal carcases, meat and offal seized at slaughterhouses and recognised as being unfit for human or animal consumption are tasks that come within the remit of the State’.

(11) On the other hand, under Article 271 of the Code rural, also amended by the above Law, ‘the destruction of material seized under the veterinary regulations other than that referred to in Article 264 and of animal waste from slaughterhouses or establishments in which animal foodstuffs and foodstuffs of animal origin are handled or prepared is not within the remit of the public rendering service. This is the sole responsibility of the slaughterhouses and establishments concerned. Except where they themselves are approved or registered for that purpose, they must entrust the treatment of such material to establishments approved or registered for that purpose by the authorities.’

(12) The remit of the public service covers the collection of fallen stock on national territory, in particular animals killed in French slaughterhouses and unsuitable for human consumption. Carcases are collected only where the animal, or the lot, weighs a minimum of 40 kg. The legislation explicitly excludes the use of the PRS financed by the rendering levy by persons who own or hold an animal carcass and ‘could’ hand it over to an approved person, without, however, being obliged to do so (Article 265 II of the Code Rural). This therefore excludes all pets owned by private individuals, who pay for the rendering services provided.

(13) The prefects select the private undertakings to carry out rendering by means of a tendering procedure, the rules on which are laid down in the Code rural. The specifications stipulate how payment is to be made for the work awarded to the successful tenderer, this payment being exclusive of any payment received from users of the public service. Accordingly, the rendering undertakings providing the PRS must provide their collection and destruction services free of charge to users (mainly livestock farmers and slaughterhouses) and are paid exclusively by the State (Article 264-2 of the Code rural).

(14) The rendering levy applies to purchases of meat and other specified products by all retailers of those products.

(15) The levy is in theory due from anyone who carries out retail sales. The taxable base is the value net of VAT of purchases from any source of: — fresh, cooked, chilled or frozen meats and offal of poultry, rabbit and game, of animals of the bovine, ovine, caprine and porcine species and of horses, asses and their crosses, — salted meats, cured meat products, lard, preserved meats and processed offal, — meat- and offal-based animal feed. Undertakings whose turnover in the previous calendar year is less than FRF 2 500 000 (6) (EUR 381 122) excluding VAT are exempt from payment of the levy. The rate of the levy is 0,5 % on monthly purchases of up to FRF 125 000 (EUR 19 056) excluding VAT and 0,9 % on monthly purchases above that amount. It was subsequently increased to 2,1 % and 3,9 % respectively (see recital 18).

(16) Initially, i.e. from 1 January 1997, revenue from the levy was paid into an ad hoc fund used to finance the collection and destruction of animal carcases and material seized at slaughterhouses and recognised as being unfit for human or animal consumption, i.e. the activities defined under Article 264 of the Code rural as falling within the remit of a public service. The fund was managed by the Centre national pour l'aménagement des structures des exploitations agricoles (CNASEA - The National Centre for the Development of Farm Structures).

(17) Law No 98-546 of 2 July 1998 laying down various economic and financial provisions (7) imposed an additional levy on the same operators during the period from 1 July to 31 December 1998, mainly to finance the destruction of mammal meal not in compliance with Community rules on the deactivation of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agents, and in particular expenditure on purchasing, transporting, storing and processing such meal. Undertakings whose turnover in the previous calendar year was less than FRF 3 500 000 (EUR 533 571) excluding VAT were exempted from this additional levy. The rate of the levy was 0,3 % on monthly purchases of up to FRF 125 000 (EUR 19 056) excluding VAT and 0,5 % on monthly purchases above that amount

(18) Article 35 of the Loi de finances rectificative pour 2000 (Amending Finance Act for 2000) (Law No 2000-1353 of 30 December 2000) (8) made a number of amendments to the rendering levy scheme, which entered into force on 1 January 2001. These amendments are claimed to be to offset the effects of the BSE crisis and the resulting extra costs. Consequently, the scope of the levy was also extended to cover ‘other meat products’. The levy was increased to 2,1 % on monthly purchases of up to FRF 125 000 (EUR 19 056) and 3,9 % on monthly purchases above that amount. In addition, all undertakings with a turnover in the previous calendar year of less than FRF 5 000 000 (EUR 762 245) excluding VAT were exempt from the levy. Finally, as from 31 December 2000, revenue from the levy was assigned directly to the national budget rather than to the fund referred to in recital 16.

(19) This increase in the rendering levy is claimed, among other things, to be in response to the need to destroy not only animal carcases and material seized at slaughterhouses and recognised as being unfit for human or animal consumption, of which there is probably more than in the past because of the BSE crisis, and the parts of carcases that were previously used for manufacturing animal meal and other products, but also animal meal whose use was temporarily banned by Council Decision 2000/766/EC of 4 December 2000 concerning certain protection measures with regard to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and the feeding of animal proteins (9).

2. THE ARGUMENTS PUT FORWARD BY THE COMMISSION WHEN OPENING THE INVESTIGATION PROCEDURE

2.1. REGARDING THE EXISTENCE OF AID

(20)

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