H & R Ecroyd Holdings Ltd contra Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Court: General Court (European Union)
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:T:1999:106
• Docket Number: T-220/97
• Date: 20 May 1999
• Procedure Type: Recours en annulation - fondé

Avis juridique important

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61997A0220

Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Fourth Chamber) of 20 May 1999. - H & R Ecroyd Holdings Ltd v Commission of the European Communities. - Milk - Reference quantity - Compliance with a judgment of the Court of Justice. - Case T-220/97.

European Court reports 1999 Page II-01677

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

Preliminary rulings - Assessment of validity - Declaration that a regulation is invalid - Effects - Application by analogy of Article 176 of the Treaty (now Article 233 EC) - Obligations of the Community institutions - Scope - Compensation for damage caused by the illegality found - Covered

(EC Treaty, Arts 176, 177 and 215, second para. (now Arts 233 EC, 234 EC and 288, second para., EC)

Summary

$$When, in proceedings under Article 177 of the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC), the Court of Justice rules that an act adopted by the Community legislature is invalid, its decision has the legal effect of requiring the competent Community institutions to adopt the measures necessary to remedy that illegality. They must therefore take the measures necessary to comply with that judgment in the same way as they must, under Article 176 of the Treaty (now Article 233 EC), in the case of a judgment annulling a measure or declaring that the failure of a Community institution to act is unlawful. When a Community measure is held to be invalid by a preliminary ruling, the obligation laid down by Article 176 of the Treaty applies by analogy.

The obligation on the institutions to take the measures necessary to remedy illegalities found by the Community judicature requires them not only to adopt the essential legislative or administrative measures but also to make good damage which has resulted from the unlawful act, subject to fulfilment of the conditions laid down in the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty (now the second paragraph of Article 288 EC) concerning the presence of fault, harm and a causal link.

Parties

In Case T-220/97,

H & R Ecroyd Holdings Ltd, a company incorporated under English law, whose registered office is at Brinsop House, Credenhill (United Kingdom), represented by William Neville, Solicitor, Peter Duffy QC, Philippa Watson and Paul Stanley, Barristers, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of Elvinger, Hoss and Prussen, 2 Place Winston Churchill,

applicant,

v

Commission of the European Communities, represented by Ana Maria Alves Vieira and Xavier Lewis, of its Legal Service, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg,

defendant,

supported by

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by Michelle Ewing, of the Treasury Solicitor's Department, acting as Agent, and Kenneth Parker and Andrew Macnab, Barristers, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the British Embassy, 14 Boulevard Roosevelt,

intervener,

APPLICATION for annulment of the Commission decision of 16 May 1997 refusing to take action to comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice of 6 June 1996 in Case C-127/94 R v MAFF ex parte Ecroyd [1996] ECR I-2731,

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

(Fourth Chamber),

composed of: R.M. Moura Ramos, President, V. Tiili and P. Mengozzi, Judges,

Registrar: J. Vanhamme, Legal Secretary,

having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 11 February 1999,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

Legal context

1 Within the framework of the common agricultural policy, the Council adopted Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 of 27 June 1968 on the common organisation of the market in milk and milk products (OJ, English Special Edition 1968 (I), p. 176).

2 Because of significant and increasing surpluses in the milk and milk products sector, the Council adopted Regulation (EEC) No 1078/77 of 17 May 1977 introducing a system of premiums for the non-marketing of milk and milk products and for the conversion of dairy herds (OJ 1977 L 131, p. 1). Under Article 2(2) of that regulation, grant of the premium was conditional upon a written undertaking by the producer not to market milk or milk products from his holding during a period of five years.

3 Article 4(1) of Regulation No 1078/77 laid down the following methods for calculating and for paying non-marketing premiums:

`The non-marketing premium shall be calculated on the basis of the quantity of milk or its equivalent in milk products delivered by the producer during the 1976 calendar year.

...

50% of the premium shall be paid during the first three months of the non-marketing period.

The balance shall be paid in the third and fifth years in two equal instalments of 25% of the premium, provided the recipient satisfies the competent authorities that the undertakings provided for in Article 2 have been fulfilled.'

4 Article 6 provided that any person taking over an agricultural holding could claim the balance of the premium awarded to his predecessor, provided that he undertook in writing to continue to carry out the undertakings given by his predecessor.

5 In 1984 it became apparent that additional measures were necessary in order to restore a balance in the milk sector. Council Regulation (EEC) No 856/84 of 31 March 1984 amending Regulation No 804/68 (OJ 1984 L 90, p. 10) inserted Article 5c into Regulation No 804/68. Article 5c instituted a system of additional levies payable by each producer or purchaser of milk or other milk products on quantities exceeding an annual individual reference quantity, the reference quantity being commonly known as `milk quota'. Under that article, the sum of the reference quantities allocated in each State to the operators concerned could not exceed a guaranteed total quantity equal to the sum of quantities of milk delivered to undertakings treating or processing milk or other milk products in each Member State during a reference year.

6 The rules for the application of the levy were laid down by 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 (OJ 1984 L 90, p. 13). With regard to producers, Article 2 of Regulation No 857/84 provided that the reference quantity was equal to the quantity of milk or milk equivalent delivered by the producer during the 1981 calendar year, plus 1%. However, the Member States could provide that on their territory the reference quantity was to be equal to the quantity of milk or milk equivalent delivered during the 1982 or the 1983 calendar years, weighted by a percentage established so as not to exceed the guaranteed quantity for each Member State. The United Kingdom fixed the reference quantity on the basis of the 1983 calendar year.

7 Regulation No 857/84 did not provide for the possibility of allocating milk quota to producers, commonly called `Slom producers', who, because of their participation in the temporary non-marketing system established by Regulation No 1078/77, had not delivered or sold milk during the reference year adopted for the allocation of quotas.

8 Following the judgments in which the Court of Justice held that Regulation No 857/84 was invalid in so far as it did not provide for the allocation of a reference quantity to Slom producers (Case 120/86 Mulder v Minister van Landbouw en Visserij [1988] ECR 2321 and Case 170/86 von Deetzen v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas [1988] ECR 2355), the Council adopted Regulation (EEC) No 764/89 of 20 March 1989 amending Regulation No 857/84 (OJ 1989 L 84, p. 2), which provided for the provisional grant of a special reference quantity (or `Slom quota') to Slom producers who satisfied certain conditions.

9 Under Article 3a(1) of Regulation No 857/84, as inserted by Regulation No 764/89, Slom producers had to request an allocation within three months from 29 March 1989.

10 Article 3a(2) fixed the special reference quantity at a particular percentage of the quantity of milk delivered by the Slom producer during the 12 calendar months preceding the month in which the application for the non-marketing premium was made, provided that the producer had not lost his entitlement to the premium.

11 However, Article 3a(1) of Regulation No 857/84 also provided that transferees of a non-marketing premium who had obtained primary quota by other means in accordance with the conditions laid down in Article 2 of the same regulation were not entitled to Slom quota (`the anti-accumulation rule').

12 Following various judgments, and in particular the judgment in Case C-314/89 Rauh v Hauptzollamt Nürnberg-Fürth [1991] ECR I-1647, concerning the interpretation and validity of Article 3a of Regulation No 857/84, the Council adopted Regulation (EEC) No 1639/91 of 13 June 1991...