Brussels, 14/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 January, the General Court of the EU upheld the European Commission decision setting the export refunds in the poultry meat sector at €0 (cases T-397/13, T-434/13 and T-549/13).
In so ruling, the Court rejected the call by France and two French companies (Doux and Tilly-Sabco) to annul the implementing regulation that the Commission adopted in July 2013. In the context of the common agricultural policy, an EU regulation provides that the difference between prices on the world market and prices in the EU may be covered by export refunds for products in, inter alia, the poultry meat sector. The export refunds for frozen chicken were gradually reduced to zero. Since the entry into force of the new common agricultural policy on 1 January 2014, positive export refunds are now possible only in cases of crisis.
The Court, which considered the appeal to be admissible (on the basis of Article 263 of the Lisbon Treaty), nonetheless concluded that the Commission's analysis of the EU market situation was correct and had shown that the price of poultry meat was high, that the margins of EU producers were greater than the historical average and that exports had continued to increase despite three successive reductions of the export refunds.
The Commission did not commit any error of assessment in considering that the situation on the EU market was stable and that it was not necessary to set positive export refunds to dispose of surplus production through exports to third countries. The Court notes that the Commission is not required to take into account the particular situation of companies which export the products concerned by the refunds to the destinations concerned (in the present case, inter alia, countries in the Middle East), but that it suffices for it to consider the overall situation of the EU market. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)