Brussels, 01/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to European Court of Justice Advocate General Melchior Whatelet, a “compulsory voluntary contribution” or CVO, extended by decision of the national authorities to all members of a recognised agricultural inter-trade organisation, is not state aid, said a European Court of Justice press release on 31 January 2013. The Court of Justice judges will decide on the matter over the next few weeks.
Professional organisations in the French turkey industry, members of the Comité interprofessionnel de la dinde française (CIDEF), signed a trade agreement in 2007 aimed at promoting and defending the sector's interests and introducing a CVO which was extended and made compulsory for all traders in that sector by a ministerial decision.
Two undertakings, Doux Élevage SNC and the Coopérative agricole UKL-ARREE, were made to pay the contribution, like all other traders in the sector and took a legal case to the French Conseil d”État seeking annulment of the ministerial decision, arguing that the contribution constituted state aid. The French court referred the question to the European Court of Justice for guidance.
The advocate general argued that the contribution does not constitute state aid because the two cumulative conditions for doing so, “state resources” and “imputability of the measures to the state”, are not satisfied as the CIDEF is a private body financed by private economic operators. He explains that the “state's role is restricted to ex post facto control that there has been no fraud or misuse of the funds”. The Court has not decided on the case in point because that will be for the French Conseil d'État to decide in the light of the Court's decision, expected in a few weeks' time. (LC/transl.fl)