NATIONAL DECISIONS MAY HAVE TO BE RE-OPENED IN LIGHT OF EU CASE-LAW.

• Position: European Union

A Member State may have to review a decision if subsequent EU case-law finds that the decision was based on a flawed reading of EU law, the European Court of Justice has found. The case (C-453/00) concerns a Dutch poultry exporter who objected after being forced to hand back export refunds it received from the Netherlands authorities. The preliminary ruling delivered by the ECJ on January 13 requires the decision to withdraw the payments to be re-examined unless doing so would adversely affect a third party.

A 1975 EU Regulation (75/2777/EC) set up a system for paying poultry producers that export to non-EU Member States. They are given export refunds depending on the customs tariff classification of the product, the purpose being to make up the difference between the price they could sell it for in the EU and the generally lower price they must sell it for on the world market. A Dutch firm, Kuhne & Heitz, received payments for declarations lodged between December 1986 and December 1987 but the Dutch Board for Poultry and Eggs demanded reimbursement on grounds that the goods had got the wrong customs tariff classification. The firm appealed to the...