The Gazette 1974

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES No. 20/73

CASES 63-69/72 WILHELM WERHAHN AND OTHERS v. COMMUN I TY 13/11/1973

If, when introducing a sole derived intervention price, the Council omitted to correct the disadvantages which indirectly the German manufacturers of cereal meal suffered in comparison with their French com- petitors, such an omission does not give rise to illegality. The Council was not obliged to verify whether cir- cumstances of such a special nature could preclude the application of provisions that are satisfactory under normal circumstances.

Damagej and Interest The Court of Justice has given judgment in seven (joined) cases in which seven German undertakings claim damages and interest from the Community. 1 he applicants process d u r um wheat into cereal meal which they supply mainly to manufacturers of maca- r °ni, spaghetti and similar products. Whilst the pro- duction of common wheat intended for bread-making shows a substantial surplus within the Community, that du r um wheat not only shows a substantial deficit but is also concentrated in certain regions, namely, as re gards France, in Beauce and the south, and in southern Italy. The claims are for an order against the Council and the Commission—as it is put in the application—and a gainst the Community-—as it is put in the reply—for Payment of sums amounting to a total of DM 9,487,281 by wayof damages, plus interest at 7% since 1 Feb- ruary 1972, as compensation for detriment which the applicants allegedly sustained during the cereal market- l n g year 1971/1972. This detriment is said to have ar isen from the deficient, irrational and illegal manage- ment of the common organisation of the market in Ce reals, especially as regards du r um wheat, which is said to have resulted in German cereal meal manu- facturers being obliged to buy their raw material— durum wheat imported from third countries—at the threshold price (125.25 u.a.), whereas their French and Italian competitors had been able to obtain home- grown du r um wheat at the intervention price (112.44 u -a.) or thereabouts. 1 his distortion of competition allegedly resulted in the loss by the applicants of 20% of the German market in cereal meal, made up of the manufacturers macaroni, spaghetti and similar products, and this '°ss had redounded largely to the advantage of French undertakings. The applicants base their claim to com- pensation chieflv on a wrongful act on the part of the Community institutions, in that they fixed the inter- Ve ntion price for French and Italian d u r um wheat at foo low a level, or the threshold price for du r um wheat 'mported from third countries at too high a level. By ^ a y of reply they further and as a subsidiary point cite me principle of entitlement to compensation for an megal intervention by the administration—even if not capable—affecting private property and equivalent to expropriation or dispossession. _ The Court rejected the claims on the basis that the i m m u n i t y cannot incur liability in respect of a detri- ment allegedly suffered by individuals as the result of a legislative measure implying choices as to economic Policy, save in the event of a sufficiently flagrant Relation of a higher rule of law for the protection of me individual. The institutions can give temporary priority to c.er- ta in of the objectives of Article 39 in preference to maintaining existing positions. T he concept of stabili- Za tion of markets cannot cover the maintenance of N a t i o n s existing under previous conditions of the market.

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