ECJ 1. The term ‘holding’ in Article 12(d) of Council Regulation No 857/84 relating to the application of the additional levy on milk covers all the agricultural production units which are the subject of a lease, even if those units, as leased, had neither dairy cows nor the technical facilities necessary for milk production and the lease provided for no obligation on the part of the lessee to engage in milk production.
2. The fundamental rights recognized by the Court are not absolute, but must be considered in relation to their social function. Consequently, restrictions may be imposed on the exercise of those rights, in particular in the context of a common organization of a market, provided that those restrictions in fact correspond to objectives of general interest pursued by the Community and do not constitute, with regard to the aim pursued, a disproportionate and intolerable interference, impairing the very substance of those rights.
In the light of those criteria, Community rules which, upon the expiry of the lease, had the effect of depriving the lessee, without compensation, of the fruits of his labour and of his investments in the tenanted holding would be incompatible with the requirements of the protection of fundamental rights in the Community legal order. Those requirements are also binding on the Member States when they implement Community rules.
In the context of the transmission, on expiry of the lease of a tenanted holding, of reference quantities attached to the holding and exempt from the additional levy on milk, Regulation No 857/84 leaves the competent national authorities a sufficiently wide margin of appreciation to enable them to ensure that that regulation is applied in a manner consistent with the requirements of the protection of fundamental rights, either by giving the lessee the opportunity of keeping all or part of the reference quantity if he intends to continue milk production, or by compensating him if he undertakes to abandon such production definitively.
3 . Article 5(3 ) of Regulation No 1371/84 relating to the transmission, in the context of the scheme for an additional levy on milk, of reference quantities exempt from the levy in the case of a change of ownership or occupancy of a holding, must be interpreted as applying to the surrender, upon the expiry of the lease, of all the agricultural production units leased, even if those units, as leased, had neither dairy cows nor the technical facilities necessary for milk production and the lease provided for no obligation on the part of the lessee to engage in milk production.
When a regulation confers a discretionary power on a Member State, it must exercise that power in accordance with European Union law
Judges:
Grevisse P
Citations:
C-5/88, [1991] 1 CMLR 328, [1989] ECR 2609, R-5/88, [1989] EUECJ R-5/88
Links:
Jurisdiction:
European
Cited by:
Cited – Swift and Another v Dairywise Farms Limited and others CA 1-Feb-2001
The company lent money to farmers secured against their milk quotas. They had to petition for a winding up, and the liquidators requested authority to continue the milk loan repayment schemes. The milk quotas had been vested in the farmers, and the . .
Cited – Zagorski and Baze, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Others Admn 29-Nov-2010
The claimants, in the US awaiting execution for murders, challenged the permitting by the defendant for export of the chemical Sodium Thipental which would be used for their execution. The respondent said that its use in general anaesthesia practice . .
Cited – Faulks v Faulks ChD 1992
One brother, as tenant farmed land under a partnership with his brother. On the death of either partner, an account was to be taken and a valuation. On the death of the tenant, there was a dispute as to whether the value of the farm’s milk quotahad . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
European, Agriculture, Constitutional
Updated: 30 January 2022; Ref: scu.134786