Opinion of Advocate General Gulmann delivered on 13 October 1992

1 Original language: Danish.

2 OJ 1980 L 62, p. 5.

3 OJ 1980 L 87, p. 42.

4 OJ 1984 L 208, p. 31.

5 OJ 1980 L 114, p. 18.

6 OJ 1980 L 270, p. 9.

7 Under Article 2(1) of Regulation No 798/80 the payment declaration is the declaration in which the exporter states his intention to place the products or goods under the customs warehousing or free-zone procedure and to export them after storage and to comply with the conditions for payment of the refund.

8 Article 8 of Regulation No 1091/80 as amended by Article 7 of Commission Regulation No 2826/82 (OJ 1982 L 297, p. 18) provides: ... (2) The first day of the storage period shall be the day following that on which the operation of putting into storage is completed. (3) Removal from storage may commence on the day following the last day of the period of storage under contract.

9 Private storage aid is conditional on a certain minimum quantity being placed in store. Because of the size of that minimum quantity the operation of putting into storage will generally take place over several days.

10 The relevant rules are set out in Commission Regulation No 3665/87 (OJ 1987 L 351, p. 1). Article 33 (in conjunction with Article 51) provides that the amount to be repaid is to be calculated in the following way: Except in cases of force majeure the refund is first to be reduced by 15%. That reduced refund is then further reduced by 2% for each day by which the time limit is exceeded. Finally, the percentage by which the refund is thereby to be reduced is increased by 20%.

11 Article 7(1) provides: On the expiry of a storage period of two months, the Contracting Party may withdraw from store all or part of the quantity of meat under contract, subject to a minimum of 10 tonnes, provided that within 60 days following its removal from storage: the meat has left the Community's territory .... The amount of the aid is reduced proportionately in accordance with the detailed rules set out in that Regulation.

12 The first indent of Article 4(5) of Commission Regulation No 3445/90 (OJ 1990 L 333, p. 30), which is referred to by the Finanzgericht Hamburg, states that the time limit provided for by the rules on aid for export is extended in the event of the simultaneous application of the scheme of private storage aid to cover the duration of the maximum contractual storage period, plus one month. The second indent of Article 4(5) provides: Member States may require that the placing in storage and the placing under the regime as referred to in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 565/80 shall commence simultaneously. In this case when a contract for private storage is concluded for a quantity which consists of several lots which are placed in storage on different dates, each of the said lots may be the subject of a separate payment declaration .... Corresponding rules had already been introduced in the regulations which in 1986 to 1989 provided for the possibility of the simultaneous application of the two aid schemes: see Article 6 in Regulation No 2651/86 (OJ 1986 L 241, p. 14), Regulation No 2437/87 (OJ 1987 L 225, p. 13), Regulation No 2675/88 (OJ 1988 L 239, p. 20) and Regulation No 2965/89 (OJ 1989 L 281, p. 103).