Opinion of Mr Advocate General Mayras

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

I —. Trade in fresh or simply chilled or frozen meat of bovine animals, falling within subheading 02.01 A II of the Common Customs Tariff, has been subject since 1971 to the system of monetary compensatory amounts under Regulation No 1014/71 of the Commission.

II —. As respects, first, the validity of the regulation in question in regard to the provisions of the basic Regulation No 974/71 of the Council on monetary compensation in the sphere of trade in agricultural products, as amended on several occasions, it should be remembered, first and foremost, that under Article 1 (1) of this instrument the only condition for the introduction of monetary compensatory amounts is that the exchange rate of the currencies in the Member States should fluctuate by a margin wider than the one permitted by international rules in force on 12 May 1971, that is to say, than the parity set by the International Monetary Fund.

III —. Secondly, monetary compensatory amounts are charged or granted under Article 1 (3) of the basic regulation only where the monetary situation would lead to serious disturbances in trade in agricultural products. According to the Commission the risk of such disturbances, already previously recognized in the case of fresh meat of bovine animals, existed also in the case of meat of bovine animals simply seasoned, in particular, by the addition of a minimum quantity of salt and pepper.

IV —. So we now come to the question of the absence, in the disputed regulation, of any provisional arrangement for contracts running at the time at which it entered into force.

V —. It only remains for me to say briefly what I think about the disputed regulation being restricted to intra-Community trade.

I am of the opinion that the Court should rule that consideration of the question raised by the Hessisches Finanzgericht has disclosed no factor of such a kind as to affect the validity of Commission Regulation No 3092/76 on the application of monetary compensatory amounts to certain beef and veal products.

1 Translated from the French.