No L 171/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 28. 6. 78 COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1422/78 of 20 June 1978 concerning the granting of certain special rights to milk producer organizations in the United Kingdom THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 of 27 June 1968 on the common organization of the market in milk and milk products(!), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1421/78 (2), and in particular Article 25 (2) and (3) thereof, Having regard'to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas under Article 25 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 a Member State may, at its request and under certain conditions, be authorized to grant a producer organization the exclusive right to purchase milk produced in the region concerned and the right to equalize the prices paid to producers; Whereas the United Kingdom has requested the Commission to grant such authorization in respect of five organizations existing within its territory and referred to as ‘Milk Marketing Boards’ (hereinafter referred to as MMBs); whereas, in accordance with Article 25 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68, the granting of the authorization requested is subject in particular to the Council’s establishing that certain conditions relating to the level of milk use in the Member State concerned for direct human consump- tion are satisfied ; whereas according to all the statis- tical data available these conditions are at present satis- fied in the United Kingdom ; Whereas, in addition to the establishment of these conditions, general rules governing the granting and maintenance of the authorization requested by the United Kingdom must be adopted ; whereas it is in particular necessary to stipulate the procedure to be followed to establish the degree of representativeness which the MMBs must prove under Article 25 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 so that the rights in ques- tion can be granted to them; Whereas detailed rules must be adopted at Commu- nity level, taking account of the conditions referred to in Article 25 (3) (a) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68, to avoid any misuse of the rights granted to the MMBs (1) OJ No L 148, 28. 6. 1968, p. 13. (%) See page 12 of this Official Journal. and to ensure that they do not apply them in practice in a manner incompatible with the general principles of the Treaty and Community law; whereas, more- over, it is necessary to define the cases in which the producers concerned may withhold their milk from the MMBs, without compromising the efficient func- tioning of the MMB:s; Whereas provisions should be drawn up to ensure equality of access and treatment for all persons wishing to buy milk from the MMBs and to prevent the selling prices applied by the MMBs from reducing, as a result of the price equalization system, the competitiveness on the United Kingdom market of milk products imported from the other Member States ; Whereas provision should be made for the possibility of adopting transitional provisions to enable the MMBs to adapt to the Community provisions which will henceforth be applicable, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION : TITLE 1 Conditions governing the grant and mainte- nance of special rights Article 1 1. It is established that, as regards the United Kingdom, the conditions referred to in Article 25 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 are at present fulfilled. ‘ 2. Under the conditions laid down in this Regula- tion, the United Kingdom may therefore be author- ized to grant to the following producer organizations the rights set out in Article 25 (1) of Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 : — the Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales, — the Scottish Milk Marketing Board, — the Aberdeen and District Milk Marketing Board, — the North of Scotland Milk Marketing Board, — the Milk Marketing Board for Northern Ireland.