[The Fifth Estate Full Movie Download [EXCLUSIVE]
Tilo Chopin
1 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Special rights of Milk Marketing Boards - Purchase of milk produced and marketed "without processing" - Concept - Pasteurized milk - Included
2 . Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Special rights of Milk Marketing Boards - Producers marketing milk otherwise than by sale to the Board - Requirement to pay contributions and other financial charges imposed by the Board - Permissibility - Conditions - Observance of the principle of proportionality
2 . A Milk Marketing Board is entitled as a matter of Community law to require a producer who produces pasteurized milk in a specific area of the United Kingdom and sells it there otherwise than to that Milk Marketing Board to pay contributions, whether the sale of the milk is by retail, by semi-retail or by wholesale, provided that such contributions satisfy the requirements of proportionality laid down in Article 5(3 ) of Regulation No 1422/78 . If such a producer contravenes the provisions of the relevant milk marketing scheme, he may be required to pay financial charges, provided that such charges are consistent with the general principles of Community law, in particular the principle of proportionality .
2 Those questions were raised in proceedings between Cricket St Thomas Estate ( hereinafter referred to as "Cricket St Thomas "), an agricultural estate producing milk and milk products, and the Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales ( hereinafter referred to as "the Board ").
3 The Board is one of several such statutory bodies ( Milk Marketing Boards ) in the United Kingdom, whose principal activities are the purchase, wholesaling and retailing of milk for human consumption and the manufacture and sale of milk products of various kinds .
4 After the accession of the United Kingdom to the Community, the operation of the Milk Marketing Boards was integrated into the common organization of the market in milk and milk products established by Regulation No 804/68, cited above, which is the basic regulation for such products . Regulation No 1421/78, cited above, amending Regulation No 804/68, provided for the possibility of recognizing the Milk Marketing Boards within the framework of that common organization of the market and authorizing the Member State in question to grant, subject to certain conditions, to an organization of milk producers established in a specific area ( a ) the exclusive right to buy from those producers the milk which they produce and market without processing and ( b ) the right to equalize the prices paid to producers, irrespective of the use for which the milk purchased from them is intended .
6 The rules governing the exercise of those special rights are laid down in the Milk Marketing Scheme . That scheme, which regulates the Board' s activities, makes provision for producers established within the Board' s area to be required to sell to the Board the milk which they produce . The Board has, for its part, an obligation, subject to certain exceptions, to purchase any raw milk of marketable quality offered to it by those producers .
7 Under the Milk Marketing Scheme, two categories of producer may be permitted, subject to certain conditions, to withhold their milk from sale to the Board and to market it on their own account . Those two categories of producer are producer-retailers, who hold a retail licence issued by the Board, and producer-processors, who are parties to a withholding agreement with the Board . Both categories of producer are required to pay certain contributions to the Board in accordance with the provisions of the Milk Marketing Scheme . The payment of those contributions is also provided for in the terms of the abovementioned licences and agreements .
8 Cricket St Thomas holds a producer-retailer licence and is also a producer-processor under an agreement entered into with the Board . It sells milk on the retail market both directly and through intermediaries .
9 In 1984, Cricket St Thomas stopped paying contributions to the Board . In 1986, the Board brought an action to recover those sums . The action relates to contributions payable by producers under the Milk Marketing Scheme, that is to say "capital contributions" calculated by reference to the total quantity of milk sold and intended to finance the Board' s capital investments, "producer-retailer contributions" payable under a producer-retailer licence, and "producer-processor contributions" payable under an agreement between the Board and a producer-processor, as well as penalties and sums recoverable in the event of a failure to comply with obligations under the Milk Marketing Scheme, in particular the obligation to furnish returns of the quantities of milk withheld from the Board .
10 Before the High Court, Cricket St Thomas contended that each of those claims was contrary to Community law . It argued that the Board' s exclusive right to buy within the meaning of Article 25(1)(a ) of Regulation No 804/68 did not extend to milk pasteurized by the producer . It further contended that the Board had no power under Community law to require producers who withheld their milk from the Board to pay contributions and that the sums demanded were unreasonable in amount .
( 2 ) ( a ) Is the Milk Marketing Board in England and Wales entitled as a matter of Community law, and if so in what circumstances, to require a producer who produces pasteurized milk in England and Wales and sells it there ( otherwise than to the Board ), to pay to the Board a levy on such milk (' the contribution' ) so that the producer is treated in principle as if he had sold his milk to the Board at the producer price and bought it back at the Board' s trade selling price?
( 4 ) If the Milk Marketing Scheme ( as amended ) does not expressly empower the Board to impose the contribution upon such producers who are 'producer-processors' , may the Board none the less impose the contribution on producer-processors in reliance upon any Community law entitlement which may be found to exist in answer to Questions 1 or 2 above?
12 Reference is made to the Report for the Hearing for a fuller account of the legal background, the facts of the case in the main proceedings, the course of the procedure and the observations submitted to the Court, which are referred to hereinafter only in so far as is necessary for the reasoning of the Court .
13 In order to answer this question, the purpose of which is to ascertain the scope of the Board' s prerogatives regarding the purchase of milk vis--vis producers within its area, it must be determined whether the concept of milk produced and marketed without processing includes milk pasteurized by the producers in question .
14 With regard to this point, the parties to the main proceedings have given conflicting interpretations of Article 25(1)(a ) of the basic regulation, No 804/68, as amended, on the basis, in particular, of the different language versions of that subparagraph . Cricket St Thomas relies on the English version to support the interpretation that the Board' s exclusive purchasing right does not cover pasteurized milk, while the Board relies on the other language versions to reach the conclusion that the exclusive right in question extends to milk pasteurized by producers .
15 The English version of Article 25(1)(a ) of the basic regulation appears to exclude from the Board' s exclusive purchasing right any milk which has been processed, referring as it does to "the milk which they produce and market without processing ". However, it must be noted that other provisions in the same language version, which define the Board' s commercial powers according to the state of preparation of the milk or milk products, contain a number of terminological discrepancies in the use of the terms "processing", "manufacture" and "conversion ".
17 In determining the scope of the Board' s exclusive right to buy milk, it must be stressed at the outset that whilst the relevant Community rules were drawn up in order to take account of the special situation of the Milk Marketing Boards in the United Kingdom, Regulation No 1421/78, as the third recital in its preamble indicates, does not refer exclusively to that Member State since it also envisages the possibility that equivalent organizations may be recognized in other Member States .
18 In any event, the English version of Article 25(1)(a ) of Regulation No 804/68 cannot serve as the sole basis for the interpretation of that provision, or be made to override the other language versions in this regard . Such an approach would be incompatible with the requirement for the uniform application of Community law .
19 As the Court stated in its judgment of 5 December 1967 in Case 19/67 Sociale Verzekeringsbank v Van der Vecht (( 1967 )) ECR 345, the need for a uniform interpretation of Community regulations means that a particular provision should not be considered in isolation but in cases of doubt should be interpreted and applied in the light of the other languages . In its judgment of 27 October 1977 in Case 30/77 Regina v Bouchereau (( 1977 )) ECR 1999, the Court also stated that the different language versions of a Community text must be given a uniform interpretation and hence, in the case of divergence between the language versions, the provision in question must be interpreted by reference to the purpose and general scheme of the rules of which it forms a part .
20 As regards the provisions to which the national court refers, it must be noted that Article 25(2 ) of Regulation No 804/68, as amended, which is the basic provision in the matter, draws a distinction between milk used for direct human consumption in the form of whole milk, on the one hand, and other milk products, on the other . Article 5(1 ) of Regulation No 1422/78, cited above, also draws a distinction, regarding the financial management and administration of the Milk Marketing Boards, between the processing of milk for direct human consumption and the manufacture of milk products .
795a8134c1