1.The Council points out that the damages claimed in these cases represent exactly the total amount of the production refunds in question. Since the latter can, according to the regulations in question, be paid only by the national authorities, the Council is of the opinion that it is therefore from the German national authorities that the applicants should have claimed payment of the refunds, bringing proceedings, in the event of a refusal, before the national courts, which could then make a reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. In this regard the Council refers to the judgments of the Court of 26 November 1975 in Case 99/74 Grands Moulins des Antilles v Commission [1975] ECR 1531 and of 27 January 1976 in Case 46/75 IBC v Commission [1976] ECR 65. It is of the opinion that the situation arising in those cases must be compared with that existing in the present applications and that, for that reason, the latter are inadmissible.The applicants reply that the Council's reasoning is erroneous, since the national authorities cannot grant production refunds without an appropriate legal basis.The Council observes in its rejoinder that in view of the pragmatic approach by the Court in the sixth paragraph of the decision in its judgment of 28 March 1979 in Case 90/78 Granaria, it will leave the question of admissibility to the Court.
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