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Document 61997CJ0240

Shrnutí rozsudku

Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Agriculture - EAGGF - Clearance of accounts - Disallowance of expenditure arising from irregularities in the application of the Community rules - Disputed by the Member State concerned - Burden of proof

(Council Regulation No 729/70, Art. 8)

2 Agriculture - Common agricultural policy - EAGGF financing - Principles - Expenditure must be in conformity with the Community rules - Member States under an obligation to monitor compliance

(EC Treaty, Art. 5 (now Art. 10 EC); Council Regulation No 729/70, Art. 8(1))

Summary

1 Where the Commission refuses to charge certain expenditure to the EAGGF, on the ground that it was incurred as a result of breaches of Community law imputable to a Member State, it is for that State to show that the conditions for obtaining the financing in question are fulfilled. That also applies where the Commission considers that the Member State has not discharged its obligation to check the various operations properly and to recover the refunds and aid improperly received by the beneficiaries.

2 Article 8(1) of Regulation No 729/70, which constitutes a specific expression in the agricultural area of the obligations imposed on Member States by Article 5 of the Treaty (now Article 10 EC), defines the principles according to which the Community and the Member States must ensure the implementation of Community decisions on agricultural intervention financed by the EAGGF and combat fraud and irregularities in relation to those operations. It imposes on the Member States the general obligation to take the measures necessary to satisfy themselves that the transactions financed by the EAGGF are actually carried out and are executed correctly, even if the specific Community act does not expressly provide for the adoption of particular supervisory measures, particularly when there is evidence such as to give rise to serious suspicions that a prohibition laid down by the Community act in question has been circumvented.

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