Opinion of Mr Advocate General Lenz delivered on 21 October 1987

1 Translated from the German.

2 Official Journal 1980, L 183, p. 1.

3 Emphasis added.

4 Official Journal 1984, C 62, p. 68.

5 Rey Soda v Cassa Conguaglio Zucchero [1975] ECR 1279, at pp. 1300 and 1301.

6 Waller Rau Lebensmittelwerke and Others v European Economic Community (represented by the Commission of the European Communities) [1987] ECR 1069.

7 Thus the Court found in the result that there was sufficient authority for the Commission's Christmas butter scheme in that the measure in question was consistent with the objectives of Articles 6 and 12 of Regulation No 804/68 of the Council of 24 June 1968 on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products (Official Journal, English Special Edition 1968 (I), p. 176) and with the objectives of the Council's implementing regulations which related to matters other than the Christmas butter scheme, although the individual procedural steps laid down in Articles 6 and 12 of Regulation No 804/68 were not fully complied with.

8 Judgment of 25 September 1979 in Case 232/78 Commission of the European Communities v French Republic [1979] ECR 2729.

9 To this extent the defendant is in a better position in this case than in Joined Cases 279, 280, 285 and 286/84 which, in contrast to the present case which concerns a market organization in the process of formation, related to a fully formed market organization with a uniform intervention system applicable throughout the Community.

10 See, in particular, the minutes of the meeting of 4 November 1985 at which the defendant referred to an alteration in the rate of clawback should the proportion of ewes in the total exports of sheepmeat to France fall outside a bracket of 19.5 to 24.4%.

11 Sec above, paragraph 17.

12 Julius Kind KG v European Economic Community [1982] ECR 2885.

13 Council Regulation No 873/84 of 31 March 1984 (Official Journal 1984, L 90, p. 42).

14 Sec paragraph 21 of the Judgment.

15 Especially paragraph 21.

16 See, for example, the Court's judgment of 12 July 1979 in Case 166/78 Italy v Council [1979] ECR 2575, at p. 2597.