Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part
Keywords

Agriculture Common agricultural policy Structural reform Improving the efficiency of structures Recognising the status of farmers practising farming as their main occupation Regulations Nos 797/85 and 2328/91 Reliance before a national court by limited companies in the absence of implementing measures in the national legal system Not permissible

(Council Regulations No 797/85, Art. 2(5), and No 2328/91, Art. 5(5))

Summary

$$The last subparagraph of Article 2(5) of Regulation No 797/85 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures and the last subparagraph of Article 5(5) of Regulation No 2328/91 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures may not be relied on before a national court by limited companies seeking to obtain the status of farmers practising farming as their main occupation where the legislature of a Member State has not adopted the provisions necessary for their implementation in the national legal system.

( see para. 29 and operative part )

Parties

In Case C-403/98,

REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) by the Tribunale Civile e Penale di Cagliari, Italy, for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between

Azienda Agricola Monte Arcosu Srl

and

Regione Autonoma della Sardegna,

Organismo Comprensoriale No 24 della Sardegna,

Ente Regionale per l'Assistenza Tecnica in Agricoltura (ERSAT),

on the interpretation of Article 2(5) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 797/85 of 12 March 1985 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures (OJ 1985 L 93, p. 1) and of Article 5(5) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2328/91 of 15 July 1991 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures (OJ 1991 L 218, p. 1),

THE COURT (Sixth Chamber),

composed of: C. Gulmann, President of the Chamber, V. Skouris and F. Macken (Rapporteur), Judges,

Advocate General: J. Mischo,

Registrar: H.A. Rühl, Principal Administrator,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:

Azienda Agricola Monte Arcosu Srl, by C. Ribolzi and E. Ribolzi, avvocati,

the Commission of the European Communities, by F.P. Ruggeri Laderchi, acting as Agent,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing the oral observations of Azienda Agricola Monte Arcosu Srl and of the Commission at the hearing on 20 January 2000,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 30 March 2000,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By order of 26 March 1998, received at the Court on 13 November 1998, the Tribunale Civile e Penale di Cagliari (Civil and Criminal District Court, Cagliari) referred for a preliminary ruling under Article 177 of the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) two questions on the interpretation of Article 2(5) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 797/85 of 12 March 1985 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures (OJ 1985 L 93, p. 1) and of Article 5(5) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2328/91 of 15 July 1991 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures (OJ 1991 L 218, p. 1).

2 Those questions have been raised in proceedings between Azienda Agricola Monte Arcosu Srl (Monte Arcosu), on the one hand, and Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (Autonomous Region of Sardinia), Organismo Comprensoriale No 24 della Sardegna (a body responsible for land registration in Sardinia) and Ente Regionale per l'Assistenza Tecnica in Agricoltura (ERSAT; regional authority for technical assistance to agriculture), on the other, concerning the rejection by Organismo Comprensoriale No 24 della Sardegna of Monte Arcosu's application to be entered in the Register of Farmers Practising Farming as their Main Occupation.

Community law

3 Article 2(5) of Regulation No 797/85 provides:

Member States shall, for the purposes of this regulation, define what is meant by the expression "farmer practising farming as his main occupation".

This definition shall, in the case of a natural person, include at least the condition that the proportion of income derived from the agricultural holding must be 50% or more of the farmer's total income and that the working time devoted to work unconnected with the holding must be less than half of the farmer's total working time.

On the basis of the criteria referred to in the foregoing subparagraph, the Member States shall define what is meant by this same expression in the case of persons other than natural persons.

4 That provision is identical to Article 5(5) of Regulation No 2328/91.

5 Under Article 32(1) of Regulation No 797/85, Member States were required, within six months of 1 April 1985, to bring into force the measures necessary to comply with that regulation.

National law

6 Article 12 of Italian Law No 153 of 9 May 1975, defining what is meant by farmer practising farming as his main occupation, laid down the criterion of two-thirds both for the farmer's total income and for the working time devoted to work unconnected with the holding.

7 Under Article 13 of that Law, persons other than natural persons, namely agricultural cooperatives established in accordance with the legislation on cooperation, and farmers' associations, qualify for the measures prescribed in Title III of that Law, provided that, in both cases, all the members derive at least 50% of their own income from farming and associated activity and devote at least 50% of their working time to farming and associated activity.

8 Article 15 of Law No 19 of the Region of Sardinia of 23 March 1979, defining what is meant by farmer practising farming as his main occupation, confers that status on those who devote not less than two-thirds of their own total working time to farming and derive not less than two-thirds of their own total earned income from farming.

9 Article 21 of that Law extends the benefits conferred by the Law to farming cooperatives and farmers' associations established in accordance with the legislation in force, provided that each member derives at least 50% of his own income from farming and devotes at least 50% of his own working time to farming and associated activity.

10 Article 2 of the Italian Ministerial Decree of 12 September 1985 provides:

Beneficiaries

1. The following farmers shall qualify for the intervention measures referred to in Title I of the abovementioned regulation in so far as they satisfy the subjective criteria set out in Article 2(1) of that regulation:

(a) farmers who cultivate their own land, whether they are owners or tenants, share-croppers and tenant-farmers, whether without the agreement of the lessor or together with the lessor, perpetual lease-holders, family members helping the farmer on a regular and permanent basis;

(b) owners, usufructuaries and tenants;

(c) agricul