Opinion of Mr Advocate General Tesauro

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. In the present proceedings for a preliminary ruling, the Court is requested to interpret the terms producer and holding used in Article 12(c) and (d) of Council Regulation No 857/84 of 31 March 1984 adopting general rules for the application of the levy referred to in Article 5c of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 in the milk and milk products sector.

2. Under the relevant Community legislation, Mr Ballmann was granted a reference quantity corresponding to the milk production of about 40 cows; Mr Menkhaus, on the other hand, was granted a reference quantity equal to the milk production of about 20 cows, on the basis of the milk production obtained by him in 1983 on his own holding, where the facilities had become outdated.

3. It is first necessary to establish who must be regarded as the producer of the milk from cows accommodated in the leased stalls.

4. Since it has been established that a lessee may also be regarded as a producer for the purposes of the legislation at issue, what remains to be determined is whether, in principle, it is possible to set the milk production obtained in the production units belonging to a farmer, who is also a milk producer, against the reference quantity granted to the lessee in respect of a holding which he owned.

5. As regards the second question, concerning the specific conditions to be satisfied for the milk obtained by the lessee to be set against his reference quantity, it is necessary in the first place to take account of the link created by Article 12 between the milk production and the producer's holding.

6. In view of the foregoing considerations, I therefore suggest that the Court give the following answer to the questions submitted by the Bundesfinanzhof:

1 Translated from the Italian.

2 OJ 1984, L 90, p. 13

3 Regulation No 804/68 of the Council on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products (OJ, English Special Edition 1968 (I), p 176).

4 OJ 1984, L 90, p. 10.

5 Case C-5/88, Wachauf [1988] ECR 2609.