OPINION OF MR MAYRAS — CASE 35/78 SCHOUTEN v HOOFDPRODUKTSCHAP VOOR AKKERBOUWPRODUKTEN

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

I shall not recite the facts from which the main action arose. They were set out clearly and fully in the report for the hearing.

I —. Schouten B.V., the appellant in the main action, challenged the validity of Commission Regulation No 1356/76 of 11 June 1976 on monetary compensatory amounts and the differential amounts applicable in respect of movements in the Irish pound and the pound sterling, on several grounds of complaint which form the basis of four partially overlapping questions by the College van Beroep.

II —. I shall begin with the interpretation of Article 26 of Regulation No 2727/75 of the Council. In my view, the scope of this question (the fourth one) extends far beyond the case which the national court has to decide, because it frequently happens that the Management Committees do not deliver an opinion (to give some examples among many others, Regulation No 722/75 of the Commission of 19 March 1975 and Commission Regulations No 1051/77 of 18 Mav 1977, No 1123/77 of 27 May 1977, No 2657/77 of 30 November 1977, and so on).

III —. I now turn to the complaints against the substantive provisions of the Commission regulation.

IV —. In these circumstances, I can be brief as regards the breach of the fundamental principles of the Treaty which is pleaded by the appellant in the main action.

In all the cirumstances, I am of the opinion that the Court should rule that consideration of the questions raised has disclosed no factor of such a kind as to affect the validity of Regulation No 1356/76.

1 Translated from the French.