C-186/93

UNAPROL v AIMA

OPINION OF ADVOCATE GENERAL VAN GERVEN delivered on 18 May 1994 *

Mr President, N o 2959/82 > and N o 2261/84. 2 In chrono- Members of the Court, logical order, 3 these regulations lay down the conditions for the granting of aid for the production of olive oil and set out the pro- cedure for payment of the aid and for check- ing entitlement to it. For present purposes, there is little to differentiate them. 1. The case before you concerns a request for a preliminary ruling from the First Civil Division of the Corte d'Appello di Roma (Court of Appeal, Rome) arising in proceed- ings between U N A P R O L (National Associ- ation of Olive Producer Groups), on the one 3. The conditions for granting the aid vary hand, and AIMA (the national intervention according to whether or not the oil producer agency for agricultural products) and the belongs to a producer organization recog- Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry, on nized under the Community rules. 4 If the the other. Those proceedings concern the olive grower does not belong to such an procedure for payment of Community aid organization, he is entitled to aid granted on for the production of olive oil and, more par- the basis of the number, the production ticularly, the question of entitlement to any potential and the yield, fixed according to a interest accruing in respect of sums passing flat rate, of his olive trees, on condition that through the bank accounts used by the olives produced have been harvested. If, U N A P R O L in order to pay the aid to the on the other hand, the olive grower does beneficiaries. belong to a producer organization, he is enti- tled to aid granted on the basis of the quan- tity of oil actually produced. The difference in treatment is justified by the important role played by the producer organizations with The national court's question and its back- regard to checks, in particular the examina- ground

5. Article 11(5) of Regulation No 2261/84 4. One of the differences between Regula- provides that 'Producer Member States shall tion N o 2959/82 and Regulation N o 2261/84 lay down rules regarding allocation of the is that in the latter account is taken of the aid and the time-limits for payment to olive associations of olive oil producer organiza- growers'. Regulation N o 2959/82 contained tions and not just of the organizations them- an equivalent provision in the first subpara- selves. In particular, in accordance with Reg- graph of Article 6(2). 6 ulation (EEC) N o 1413/82, 5 it reserves to associations the right to receive and distrib- ute the advances on production aid. Accord- ing to Article 10 of Regulation N o 2261/84, the associations of producer organizations: 6. In implementation of those provisions, the Italian Minister for Agriculture adopted two decrees, on 29 December 1983 7 and 2 January 1985. 8 The provision at issue is Article 17 of the Decree of 2 January 1985, 9 — coordinate the activities of the organiza- the first six paragraphs of which are worded tions of which they are composed and as follows: ensure that those activities accord with the provisions of the regulation;

'The recognized associations of producer groups shall, in respect of their members, effect payment of the advance on and the — lodge with the competent authorities the crop declarations and the aid applications forwarded to them by the organizations of which they are composed; 6 — 'The Member States concerned shall determine the procedure for payment of the aid and the advance by producer organi- zations to their members.' 7 — G U R I N o 28 of 28 January 1984. 8 — G U R I N o 17 of 21 January 1985. 5 — Council Regulation (EEC) N o 1413/82 of 18 May 1982 9 — The provision is identical to that contained in the first amending Regulation N o 136/66/EEC on the establishment decree, save that the words 'recognized producer organiza- of a common organization of the market in oils and fats tions' are replaced by 'the recognized associations of pro- (OJ 1982 L 162, p. 6). ducer groups' in the second decree.

Any bank interest accruing shall belong solely to A I M A t o whom it must be credited by the producer organizations, after deduc- tion only of sums payable to the Treasury, by the deposit of Treasury bonds into non- interest-bearing current account N o 416 in Relations between the recognized associa- the name of AIMA — Financial Manage- tions and the credit institution responsible ment.' for payment of Community production aid shall be governed, according to Presidential Decree N o 532 of 4 July 1973, by a special agreement to the effect that payment to recipients is to be made at the latest within 10 working days from the date on which the credit operations involving the 7. The subject of the proceedings before the said sums, ordered by AIMA, result in their national court is precisely the ownership of being made available. With regard to mem- the interest accruing on the amounts of aid bers of oil-producing cooperatives belonging either during the brief period between the to producer groups, the non-transferable time when then the sum paid by AIMA is cheques payable to the various producers credited and the time when it is debited on may be forwarded through the cooperatives payment by the association to the benefi- themselves, in order to facilitate payment ciary, or as a result of the temporary non- operations. payment of the aid owing to a cheque being

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OPINION OF MR VAN GERVEN — CASE C-186/93

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U N A P R O L v AIMA

European Agricultural Guidance and Guar- They shall inform the Commission forthwith antee Fund (EAGGF). The basic regulation of any change in those particulars. on financing the Common Agricultural Pol- icy is Regulation (EEC) N o 729/70 of the Council. 1 0 Article 4 n of that regulation refers to intervention bodies, such as AIMA in the present proceedings, and to the proce- dure for payment: 2. The Commission shall make available to Member States the necessary credits so that the designated authorities and bodies may, in accordance with Community rules and national legislation, make the payments ' 1 . Member States shall designate the author- referred to in paragraph 1. ities and bodies which they shall empower to effect, from the date of application of this regulation, the expenditure referred to in Articles 2 12 and 3. u They shall communi- cate to the Commission, as soon as possible after the entry into force of this regulation, the following particulars concerning those The Member States shall ensure that those authorities and bodies: credits are used without delay and solely for the purposes laid down.'

— their name and, where appropriate, their statutes; 10. Commission Regulations (EEC) N o 380/78 14 and N o 3184/83, 1 5 adopted in implementation of Article 4 of Regulation N o 729/70, both expressly state that the — the administrative and accounting condi- Commission is to place at the disposal of the tions in accordance with which payments Member State the necessary means for pay- are made relating to the implementation ment by the disbursing authorities of expen- of Community rules within the frame- diture financed by the Guarantee Section of work of the common organization of the EAGGF into 'an account opened for this agricultural markets.

purpose by each Member State within the producer groups and pursuing the same Treasury or some other financial institution' objectives as those groups, but on a larger (Article 1(1)). According to Article 1(3); scale. 'Each Member State shall ensure that the Community funds are properly managed and shall distribute them among the disbursing authorities . . .'. The regulations specify, more- over, the accounting obligations of the dis- bursing authorities as well as the supporting 12. By Regulation (EEC) N o 1917/80, 18 documents which are to be forwarded by the and subsequendy by Regulation (EEC) Member States to the Commission. N o 1413/82, 19 the Council established the principle of involving associations of pro- ducer groups recognized under Regulation N o 1360/78 in the management of aid for the production of olive oil.

been noted. A system of recognition was son to become members of a producer group introduced to ensure that the grouping of may none the less qualify for aid calculated holdings takes place within bodies with the in this way if they undergo checks carried appropriate production and marketing disci- out by a recognized producer group associa- pline, which offer sufficient guarantees as to tion. 20 Since, for the producer group, that is the stability and effectiveness of their actions a task not provided for in Regulation and do not, by virtue of their position and N o 1360/78, which covers only improve- their economic activity, conflict with the ments to the supply structure, and that it is operation of the Common Market and the the recipients of the aid who benefit from general objectives of the Treaty. 17 The regu- lation provided, moreover, for the creation of associations, consisting of recognized 18 — Council Regulation (EEC) N o 1917/80 of 15 July 1980 amending Regulation N o 136/66/EEC on the establishment of a common organization of the market in oils and fats and supplementing Regulation (EEC) N o 1360/78 on producer 16 — Council Reguladon (EEC) N o 1360/78 of 19 June 1978 on groups and associations thereof (OJ 1980 L 186, p. 1). producer groups and associations thereof (OJ L 166, p.l). 19 — Cited above, footnote 5. 17 — Seventh recital in the preamble to Regulation N o 1360/78, 20 — Fourth recital in the preamble to, and Article 1 of, Regula- cited above. tion (EEC) N o 1917/89, cited above.

14. It appears from those different provi- sions that, once the Commission has paid the overall amount into the Member State's account, Community law ceases to apply. It is for the Member State to determine which bodies it will recognize as intervention agen- cies authorized to make payments in accor- 13. It follows from consideration of the var- dance with the rules adopted under the com- ious regulations that aid for the production mon organization of agricultural markets of olive oil is part of an overall sum to be and what their status will be. It is also the paid by the Commission to a Member State Member State who makes the transfer from into an account opened by that State 'within its account into that of the intervention the Treasury or some other financial institu- agency. The Member State also lays down tion' in accordance with Article 1(1) of the procedure for payment of the aid by the Commission Regulations N o 380/78 and intervention agencies to the beneficiaries, N o 3184/83, 21 cited above. Pursuant to Arti- whether the sums are transferred by way of cle 1(3), the Member State is to forward the an intermediary (association of producer amounts of aid to the intervention agency, in groups) or not (payment direct to an oil pro- this case AIMA. The procedure for payment ducer who does not belong to an associa- of the aid by AIMA to the beneficiaries tion). If the payments are made through an (individual oil producers or associations of association, it is always the Member State which determines the procedure for payment by the association to the beneficiary. 21 — Eighth recital in the preamble to Regulation No 1917/80, cited above. Different rules deal with the consumption of olive oil. 22 — The wording of Article 1 of both of those regulations is 23 — Provision equivalent to the first paragraph of Article 6(2) of identical. Regulation No 2959/82, cited above.

17. The question before the Court relates, indirecdy, to the provisions adopted by a national legislature with regard to the proce- dure for payment of Community aid by an intervention agency within the framework of the common agricultural policy. As I have already shown, the national legislature was 16. However, the Member States' freedom clearly acting within its powers since, in to apply their national law is not absolute. addition to the general provisions relating to Still in connection with the application of the implementation of the common agricul- Article 8(1) of Regulation N o 729/70 of the tural policy, the regulations dealing specifi- Council, 26 the Court has held that 'recourse cally with aid for the production of olive oil to rules of national law is possible only in so also expressly stated that it was for the far as it is necessary for the implementation national authorities to determine the alloca- of provisions of Community law and in so tion of the aid and the time-limits for pay- far as the application of those rules of ment thereof. Determining the time-limit for national law does not jeopardize the scope payment of the aid implies, to my mind, the and effectiveness of Community law.' 2 7 power both not only to define precisely the Likewise, in the Deutsche Milchkontor time, the operation, from which payment is to be made and, therefore, the time when the beneficiary of the aid becomes the owner of the amount to which he is entided and of the 24 — Cited above, footnote 10. interest that sum may earn, but also to deter- 25 — See, for example, the judgment in Case C-366/88 France v Commission [1990] ECR 1-3571 with regard to the detailed mine to whom those sums and that interest rules for supervision, and the judgment in Joined belong in the interim. Cases 205/82 to 215/82 Deutsche Milcbkontor v Germany [1983] ECR 2633 with regard to recovery of aid unduly paid. 26 — Cited above, footnote 10. 27 — Judgment in Joined Cases 146/81, 192/81 and 193/81 BAYWA v BALM [1982] ECR 1503, paragraph 29. 28 — Cited above, footnote 25, paragraph 17 of the judgment.

20. In conclusion, the Italian legislature was acting w i t h i n its p o w e r s w h e n it adopted the contested decrees and there is n o t h i n g in C o m m u n i t y law t o suggest that Article 17 of the Decree of 2 J a n u a r y 1985 in any w a y jeopardizes the scope, effectiveness or u n i f o r m application of C o m m u n i t y law. F o r that reason, I p r o p o s e

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that the Court answer the question referred by the Corte d'Appello di Roma as fol- lows:

'The Community provisions applicable to the common agricultural policy, and par- ticularly Council Regulations (EEC) N o 2959/82 and N o 2261/84 laying down gen- eral rules in respect of production aid for olive oil, are to be interpreted as reserving to the Member States the power to determine, according to national law, the pro- cedure for the allocation of aid to olive growers, and the time-limits for payment of the aid.

A Member State does not exceed the limits of that power where it settles the ques- tion of the allocation of the bank interest accruing on the sums of aid passing through the accounts of associations of producer groups, either in the interval between the time when the sum paid by the intervention agency is credited and the time when it is debited on payment by the association to the beneficiary, or by rea- son of the temporary non-payment of the aid on account of the return of a cheque owing to death or non-delivery to the address shown on the beneficiary's applica- tion, pending the issue of new payment documentation.'