Opinion of Mr Advocate General VerLoren van Themaat delivered on 10 April 1984

1 Translated from the Dutch.

2 Translator's note: An English version has been published ín Collection of the Agreements concluded by the European Communities, Volume 5, p. 468.

3 The last paragraph of page 2 of lhe letter in fact reads as follows: Comme vous le savez, l'accord s'était établi avec l'administation, sur la proposition d'actualiser les prix unitaires des travaux dans lesquels intervient le bitume, à la date de septembre 1975. On the basis of the abovementioned division of powers, on which the Commission has placed so much emphasis during the proceedings, the applicant could certainly assume that the agreement was reached by the competent Community authorities. In this respect the inerpretation given to that passage by the Commission on page 7 of the Defence and page 6 of the Rejoinder is not plausible.

4 In any event, his authority has never been disputed by the Commission during the proceedings before the Court; on the contrary, it has been implicitly acknowledged.

5 The accuracy of those assertions on the part of the Commission could neither be confirmed nor denied by the applicant's representative at the hearing, as he had not been adequately instructed as to the outcome of the arbitration procedure.

6 Such an agreement will thus be within the conditions laid down by the Commission for the method of calculation.