A. A. Herbrink contra Minister van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Writing for the Court: Zuleeg
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1994:24
• Date: 27 January 1994
• Docket Number: C-98/91
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling

Avis juridique important

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61991J0098

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 27 January 1994. - A. A. Herbrink v Minister van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij. - Reference for a preliminary ruling: College van Beroep voor het Bedrijfsleven - Netherlands. - Additional levy on milk - Non-marketing undertaking - Expiry of agricultural lease - Transfer of a lease to an association or group of persons. - Case C-98/91.

European Court reports 1994 Page I-00223

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

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1. Community law - Interpretation - Methods

2. Agriculture - Common organization of the market - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Allocation of reference quantities exempt from the levy - Producers suspending deliveries pursuant to the system of premiums for non-marketing or conversion - Grant of a special reference quantity - Condition - Continued operation of the same holding as at the time of the grant of the premium - Possibility for Member States to provide for an exception in favour of producers who have operated a holding pursuant to an agricultural lease which has come to an end - Exception excluding breach of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations

(Council Regulation No 857/84, Art. 3a(1)(a), as amended by Regulation No 764/89, and Art. 7(4), as inserted by Regulation No 590/85; Commission Regulation No 1546/88, Art. 3a(1), as inserted by Regulation No 1033/89, and Art. 7, first para., point (4))

3. Agriculture - Common organization of the market - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Allocation of reference quantities exempt from the levy - Producers suspending deliveries pursuant to the system of premiums for non-marketing or conversion - Grant of a special reference quantity - Reletting of a holding to an association or group of persons including the initial lessee - Status of producer - Association or group of persons

(Council Regulation No 857/84, Art. 3a(1) and Art. 12(c))

4. Agriculture - Common organization of the market - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Allocation of reference quantities exempt from the levy - Producers suspending deliveries pursuant to the system of premiums for non-marketing or conversion - Grant of a special reference quantity - Producers no longer fulfilling the conditions for the grant at the time of lodging their request - Exclusion of the benefit of retroactive remission of the levy - Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations - Principle of non-discrimination - Breach - None

(EEC Treaty, Art. 40(3); Council Regulation No 857/84, as amended by Regulation No 764/89)

Summary

1. In construing a provision of secondary Community law, preference should as far as possible be given to the interpretation which renders the provision consistent with the Treaty and the general principles of Community law.

2. Under Article 3a(1) of Regulation No 1546/88, as inserted by Regulation No 1033/89, the grant pursuant to Article 3a(1) of Regulation No 857/84, as amended by Regulation No 764/89, of a special reference quantity to a producer bound, during the reference year, by a non-marketing undertaking given pursuant to Regulation No 1078/77 presupposes that he is able to prove that he is still operating, in whole or in part, the same holding as that which he operated at the time of the grant to him of the premium to which he was entitled by reason of the aforementioned undertaking. The intention underlying the imposition of that condition by Article 3a(1) of Regulation No 1546/88 was to enshrine, with regard to the allocation of special reference quantities, the general principle that every reference quantity is to remain attached to the land in respect of which it is allocated; that principle is also put into effect by Article 3a(1)(a) of Regulation No 857/84.

However, its application does not exclude that of Article 7(4) of Regulation No 857/84, nor that of subparagraph (4) of the first paragraph of Article 7 of Regulation No 1546/88, by virtue of which Member States are authorized, by way of exception to the general principle set out above, to put a reference quantity at the disposal of a lessee who intends to continue milk production following the expiry of a non-renewable lease, so that the legitimate expectations of producers having the status of lessees who have entered into a non-marketing undertaking cannot be said to be prejudiced.

3. Article 3a of Regulation No 857/84, relating to the grant of special reference quantities to producers bound, during the reference year, by a non-marketing undertaking given pursuant to Regulation No 1078/77, is to be interpreted as meaning that it does not preclude the allocation of a special reference quantity following the reletting of a holding to the former producer, who was the initial lessee, in collaboration with other persons, and that that association or group of persons is to be regarded as a producer within the meaning of Articles 3a and 12(c) of Regulation No 857/84 and thus as the person entitled to the special reference quantity.

4. Notwithstanding that Regulation No 857/84, in the version resulting from Regulation No 764/89, does not provide for the retroactive remission of the additional levy on milk in favour of producers who are bound, during the reference year, by a non-marketing undertaking given pursuant to Regulation No 1078/77 and who no longer fulfil the conditions for the grant of a special reference quantity at the time of lodging their request, that regulation does not constitute a breach of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, nor of the prohibition against discrimination laid down by Article 40(3) of the Treaty.

First, the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations does not preclude the Community rules from imposing conditions which are inherent in any scheme which seeks to limit agricultural production by establishing a system of quotas, in so far as that scheme does not specifically affect a class of producers by reason of the non-marketing undertakings given by them. A producer could not legitimately expect to resume production on the expiry of the non-marketing period without being liable to a levy under the scheme previously introduced by Regulation No 856/84, as long as he had not obtained a reference quantity exempt from that levy. Consequently, a producer who did not ultimately fulfil the conditions for the allocation of a reference quantity at the time when he resumed production could not expect to be exempted retroactively from the additional levy.

Secondly, the difference in the treatment of the producers concerned, who are unable to benefit from a retroactive remission of the additional levy, is justified, because Regulation No 764/89 seeks, by removing the burden of the past constituted by levies due or already paid, to facilitate the resumption of production by producers who are effectively entitled to claim the grant of a special reference quantity. That objective has no relevance in the case of producers excluded from the allocation of a special quantity.

Parties

In Case C-98/91,

REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the College van Beroep voor het Bedrijfsleven (Administrative Court for Trade and Industry) for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between

A.A. Herbrink

and

Minister van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij

on the validity of Article 3a of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1546/88 of 3 June 1988 laying down detailed rules for the application of the additional levy referred to in Article 5c of Council Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 (Official Journal 1988 L 139, p. 12), as amended by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1033/89 of 20 April 1989 (Official Journal 1989 L 110, p. 27), and on the interpretation of Articles 3a and 12(c) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 857/84 of 31 March 1984 adopting general rules for the application of the levy referred to in Article 5c of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 in the milk and milk products sector (Official Journal 1984 L 90, p. 13), as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No 764/89 of 20 March 1989 (Official Journal 1989 L 84, p. 2),

THE COURT (Third Chamber),

composed of: J.C. Moitinho de Almeida, President of the Chamber, F. Grévisse and M. Zuleeg (Rapporteur), Judges,

Advocate General: C.O. Lenz,

Registrar: H.A. Ruehl, Principal Administrator,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:

- Mr A.A. Herbrink, by E.H. Pijnacker Hordijk, of the Amsterdam Bar,

- the Netherlands Government, by B.R. Bot, Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting as Agent,

- the Commission of the European Communities, by R.C. Fischer, Legal Adviser, acting...