3 Colum. J. Eur. L. 125 (1996)
Petra Foubert. Assistant at the Institute for European Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Common organization of the markets in bananas; Cases of hardship; Provisional measures
In February 1993 the European Community established a common market for bananas. The Banana Regulation, which replaced the various national arrangements for the importation of bananas, favors the marketing of Community bananas and bananas from ACP countries and contains very restrictive rules on the importation of so-called third-country bananas from Central and South America. Germany, in particular, a traditional importer of third-country bananas, was not very happy with these new common arrangements. Both Germany and German banana operators tried, directly or indirectly, to have the Banana Regulation annulled by the Court of Justice, but did not succeed.
The case under consideration is the answer of the Court of Justice to a request for a preliminary ruling by the Hessisches Verwaltungsgericht (Higher Administrative Court, Hesse) on the interpretation, casu quo the validity of certain provisions of the Banana Regulation. The judgment is not important so much for the common banana market, but rather for a legal doctrine that might enable national judges to order provisional measures in proceedings to grant interim relief.
