Issues in the interpretation of the EU legislation on the example of a contract for the supply of agricultural produce

Abstract

The purpose of the deliberations was to determine whether, under the provisions of European Union law, the clause on termination or cancellation of a contract is a mandatory element of the contract for the supply of agricultural produce. The considerations were carried out pursuant to the canons of interpretation of EU law. While a grammatical interpretation, taking into account the official languages of the European Union, did not lead to a conclusive answer, extra-linguistic methods of interpretation have resulted in surprising conclusions, differing from the literal wording of the provision regulating the issue in question. In has been thus concluded that a contract for the supply of agricultural produce should contain a provision allowing its cancellation rather than termination, but such a provision ought to be mandatory only in the case of fixed-term contracts, where the performance of the agricultural producer is continuous or periodical.