C-196/94

JUDGMENT OF 16. 11. 1995 — CASE C-196/94

J U D G M E N T O F T H E COURT (Second Chamber) 16 November 1995 *

In Case C-196/94,

REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EC Treaty by the Judicial Committee of the Conseil d'État, Luxembourg, for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between

Catherine Schiltz-Thilmann

and

composed of: G. Hirsch, President of the Chamber, G. F. Mancini (Rapporteur) and F. Α. Schockweiler, Judges,

Advocate General: G. Cosmas, Registrar: R. Grass,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:

— Mrs Schiltz-Thilmann, by Fernand Entringer, of the Luxembourg Bar,

— the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, by Ferdinand Hoffstetter, Conseiller de direction 1ère classe, acting as Agent,

— the Commission of the European Communities, by Gérard Rozet, Legal Adviser, and Gérard Berscheid, of the Legal Service, acting as Agents,

JUDGMENT OF 16. 11. 1995 — CASE C-196/94

inary ruling under Article 177 of the EC Treaty a question concerning the inter- pretation of Article 5c of Regulation (EEC) N o 804/68 of the Council of 27 June 1968 on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products (OJ, English Special Edition 1968 (I), p. 176), as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) N o 856/84 of 31 March 1984 (OJ 1984 L 90, p. 10) and Council Regulation (EEC) N o 1298/85 of 23 May 1985 (OJ 1985 L 137, p. 5), and of Article 6a of Council Regulation (EEC) N o 857/84 of 31 March 1984 adopting general rules for the application of the levy referred to in Article 5c of Regulation (EEC) N o 804/68 in the milk and milk products sector (OJ 1984 L 90, p. 13), as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) N o 590/85 of 26 February 1985 (OJ 1985 L 68, p. 1).

2 That question arose in a dispute between Mrs Schiltz-Thilmann, the owner of a farm producing cow's milk, and the Luxembourg Minister of Agriculture (herein- after 'the Minister') concerning a decision requiring Mrs Schiltz-Thilmann to pay an additional levy for exceeding her reference quantity in respect of direct sales of cow's milk for the 1991/92 marketing year.

3 With a view to limiting the production of milk and milk products within the Com- munity, Article 5c of Regulation N o 804/68 (as amended inter alia by Regulation N o 856/84) introduced an additional levy payable by producers or purchasers of milk on quantities sold or purchased in excess of a specified reference quantity. For the purposes of the additional levy a distinction is made between deliveries to dair- ies or other undertakings and direct sales to consumers.

8 Pursuant to the second and third subparagraphs of Article 5c(7) of Regulation N o 804/68, as amended in this regard by Regulation N o 1298/85, the national quota fixed for deliveries may be adjusted, in accordance with the Management Committee procedure, on the basis of objective and duly justified statistical data to take account of structural changes.

9 Finally, Article 6a of Regulation N o 857/84, as amended, provides that producers having two individual reference quantities, one for deliveries and the other for direct sales, may, on request, obtain an increase in one of the reference quantities to enable them to adapt to changes in their marketing requirements. Any such increase, however, is subject to a reduction of the same amount in the other refer­ ence quantity.

10 According to the judgment making the reference, Mrs Schiltz-Thilmann delivers part of the milk produced on her farm to a purchaser, while the rest is sold directly to consumers by way of cheese production. For the application of the additional levy on cow's milk, Mrs Schiltz-Thilmann thus has two reference quantities, one for deliveries and the other for direct sales. For the 1991/92 marketing year, at

I - 4007

JUDGMENT OF 16. 11. 1995 — CASE C-196/94

issue in the main proceedings, the reference quantities allocated to her were 152 654 kg in respect of direct sales and 175 805 kg for deliveries, whereas the quantities actually sold or delivered during that marketing year amounted to 198 044 kg and 160 594 kg respectively.

tation of the Community rules. It accordingly referred the following question to the Court for a preliminary ruling:

'Do the provisions of Community law, in particular Article 6a of Regulation (EEC) N o 857/84 and Article 5c(7) of Regulation (EEC) N o 804/68, allow aggre­ gation of "purchaser" and "direct sales" quotas in order to determine whether there has been overproduction at national level, or are those quotas independent of each other and for that reason not capable of being aggregated, subject to the pos­ sibility of transfer from one quota to the other within the limits of Article 6a of Regulation (EEC) N o 857/84?'

15 In order to reply to this question, it is necessary to bear in mind that the purpose of the additional levy is to re-establish, by limiting Community milk production, the balance between supply and demand on the milk market, which is character­ ized by structural surpluses (see, in particular, the judgment in Case 84/87 Erpeld- ing ν Secrétaire d'État à l'Agriculture et a la Viticulture [1988] ECR2647, para- graph 26).

16 The structural surpluses are to be eliminated by means of two separate additional levy schemes, one in respect of direct sales, the other in respect of deliveries. Those schemes, which apply in different circumstances, are established by separate pro- visions and each has its own distinct characteristics.

17 It must first be noted that the two types of reference quantity are established sep- arately by specific provisions. Thus, the individual reference quantity for deliveries was introduced by Article 5c(l) of Regulation N o 804/68, as amended, while the corresponding national quota was provided for in Article 5c(3). The individual ref- erence quantity for direct sales, for its part, was introduced by Article 5c(2), while the corresponding national quota is governed by Article 6 of Regulation N o 857/84 and the annex thereto.

21 The distinct and independent nature of the two types of reference quantities for direct sales and for deliveries is not affected by Article 6a of Regulation N o 857/84, as amended, or by Article 5c(7) of Regulation N o 804/68, as amended.

22 The exceptional procedure introduced by Article 5c(7) in order to take account of structural changes affecting direct sales and deliveries relates to the national quota for deliveries; it thus relates to the Member States and not to individual producers. Moreover, an adjustment of this quota cannot, pursuant to the third subparagraph of Article 5c(7), result in an increase in the sum total of the national quotas.

I-4010

SCHILTZ-THILMANN ν MINISTRE DE L'AGRICULTURE

Finally, such an adjustment is not automatic, occurring as it does at the conclusion of the Management Committee procedure set out in Article 30 of Regulation N o 804/68 and on the basis of objective and duly justified statistical data. Such an adjustment is not limited to one single marketing year but remains in force until the statistical data change.

23 Article 5c(7) has therefore no bearing on the circumstances giving rise to the addi­ tional levy payable by individual producers in cases where the reference quantity allocated to them has been exceeded.

27 The costs incurred by the Luxembourg Government and the Commission of the European Communities, which have submitted observations to the Court, are not recoverable. Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the national court, the decision on costs is a mat­ ter for that court.

O n those grounds,

T H E C O U R T (Second Chamber),

in answer to the question referred to it by the Judicial Committee of the Luxem­ bourg Conseil d'Etat, by judgment of 6 July 1994, hereby rules:

Article 6a of Council Regulation (EEC) N o 857/84 of 31 March 1984 adopting general rules for the application of the levy referred to in Article 5c of Regu­ lation (EEC) N o 804/68 in the milk and milk products sector, as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) N o 590/85 of 26 February 1985, and Article 5c(7) of Regulation (EEC) N o 804/68 of the Council of 27 June 1968 on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products, as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) N o 856/84 of 31 March 1984 and subsequently by Council Regulation (EEC) N o 1298/85 of 23 May 1985, are to be interpreted as meaning that they do not allow aggregation of the reference quantities for direct sales and for deliveries, which are independent of each other, in order to determine whether there has been overproduction at national level.

Hirsch Mancini Schockweiler