Judgment_paragraph 96 · Kingdom of the Netherlands v European Commission (T-126/14)

96First, as regards old claims relating to additional levies, it should be pointed out that, according to the case-law, the purpose of the levy system is to re-establish, by limiting milk production, the balance between supply and demand in the milk market, which is characterised by structural surpluses. That purpose therefore falls within the ambit of the objectives of rational development of milk production and, by contributing to a stabilisation of the income of the agricultural community affected, that of ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community (judgments of 17 May 1988 in Erpelding, 84/87, ECR, EU:C:1988:245, paragraph 26; 25 March 2004 in Cooperativa Lattepiù and Others, C‑231/00, C‑303/00 and C‑451/00, ECR, EU:C:2004:178, paragraph 73, and Azienda Agricola Ettore Ribaldi and Others, C‑480/00, C‑482/00, C‑484/00, C‑489/00 to C‑491/00 and C‑497/00 to C‑499/00, ECR, EU:C:2004:179, paragraph 57). The additional levy on milk amounts to a restriction arising from market policy rules or structural policy (judgments in Cooperativa Lattepiù and Others, EU:C:2004:178, paragraph 74, and Azienda Agricola Ettore Ribaldi and Others, EU:C:2004:179, paragraph 58). It is one of the interventions designed to stabilise agricultural markets and is to be used to finance expenditure in the milk sector. It follows that, apart from its obvious aim of requiring milk producers to observe the reference quantities allocated to them, the additional levy has an economic objective too, in that it is intended to bring to the Community the funds necessary for disposal of milk produced by producers in excess of their quotas (judgments in Cooperativa Lattepiù and Others, EU:C:2004:178, paragraph 75; Azienda Agricola Ettore Ribaldi and Others, EU:C:2004:179, paragraph 59; and of 15 July 2004 in Gerekens and Procola, C‑459/02, ECR, EU:C:2004:454, paragraph 37).

Kingdom of the Netherlands v European Commission (T-126/14)

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