Summary of the Advocate General's Opinion

Mr Advocate General Van Gerven delivered his Opinion at the sitting on 23 January 1990

1. In his Opinion the Advocate General first examined the admissibility of the actions brought in Cases C-112/88 and C-20/89 by the Crete Citron Producers' Association against Decisions 88/438/EEC and 88/600/EEC, which were addressed to the Greek Government The Advocate General argued that, for the actions brought by the Association to be admissible, the latter had to belong, at the time when the decisions were taken, to a group of persons whose number and identity were fixed or ascertainable, so that the Commission was in a position to know that its decision affected the interests and the legal position of those persons alone

2. Turning to the question whether the conditions for the application of Decision 86/614 had been met, the Advocate General made in particular the following observations :

3. With regard to the question whether the Commission had failed to respect the procedural rights of the applicants, the Advocate General stated that:

4. The Advocate General concluded by proposing that the Court should declare

1 Original language: Dutch

2 OJ 1988 L 218 p 19

3 OJ 1988 L 325 p 58

4 See the judgment of 1 July 1965 in Joined Cases 106 and 107/63 Töpfer v Commission [1965] ECR 405, and of 18 November 1975 in Case 100/74 CAM v Commission [1975) ECR 1393

5 Sec the judgment of 17 January 1985 in Case 11/82 Piraiki Patruki v Commiaion [1985] ECR 227 paragraph 14

6 Sec the judgment of 14 July 1983 in Case 231/82 Spijker Kwasten v Commission [1983] ECR 2559 paragraph 10 and of 6 October 1982 in Case 307/81 Alumine v Council and Commission [1982] ECR 3463

7 Thus it appears from the order of 6 May 1988 of the President of the Court concerning an application for interim measures in Case 111/88 R that the exportation of citrus fruit accounts for only 0.0245% of the total value of Greek exports (see paragraphs 17 and 18 of the order)

8 See the judgment of 10 July 1986 in Case 234/84 Belgium v Commission [1986] ECR 2263 paragraph 27

9 See the judgment of 11 November 1987 in Case 259/85 France v Commission [1987] ECR 4393 paragraph 12