Opinion of Mr Advocate General VerLoren van Themaat delivered on 7 December 1982

1 Translated from the Dutch.

2 I have in mind particularly the statement in the Commission's application, which has not been disputed by the United Kingdom, that merely an uninterrupted UHT treatment for at least one second at n temperature of 132.2o Centigrade is required, whereas for imported milk originating from areas where foot-and-mouth disease has occurred a longer treatment at a temperature of 1-10o Centigrade is required.

3 To avoid any misunderstandings on the matter by third parties I would like to point out that the United Kingdom is paying a little too much respect to the opinions of an advocate general when it suggests in its reply that the opinion of an advocate general reflects with binding effect the current state of the law unless and until the Court itself decides otherwise. An advocate general is not a judge of first instance, even though in formulating his independent legal judgment on a point of Community law, just as a judge, he must, in the very nature of things, pay as much attention to the concerns of the Community as to the concerns of Member States or other legal subjects.