This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
Document 62010CN0111
Case C-111/10: Action brought on 1 March 2010 — European Commission v Council of the European Union
Case C-111/10: Action brought on 1 March 2010 — European Commission v Council of the European Union
Case C-111/10: Action brought on 1 March 2010 — European Commission v Council of the European Union
IO C 113, 1.5.2010, p. 32–33
(BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)
1.5.2010 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
C 113/32 |
Action brought on 1 March 2010 — European Commission v Council of the European Union
(Case C-111/10)
2010/C 113/50
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: European Commission (represented by: V. Di Bucci, L. Flynn, B. Stromsky, A. Stobiecka-Kuik, Agents)
Defendant: Council of the European Union
The applicant claims that the Court should:
— |
annul Council Decision of 16 December 2009 on the granting of State aid by the authorities of the Republic of Lithuania for the purchase of State-owned agricultural land between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2013 (1); |
— |
order the Council of the European Union to pay the costs. |
Pleas in law and main arguments
1. |
The Council, by adopting the contested decision, has overturned the Commission's decision resulting from the proposal for appropriate measures in Point 196 of the Community Guidelines for State aid in the agricultural and forestry sector 2007-2013 (2) (hereafter the ‘2007 Agricultural Guidelines’) and from its unconditional acceptance by Lithuania, obliging the latter to bring to an end an existing aid scheme for the purchase of State-owned agricultural land by 31 December 2009 at the latest. Under the guise of exceptional circumstances, the Council has in fact allowed Lithuania to maintain that scheme until the expiry of the 2007 Agricultural Guidelines on 31 December 2013. The circumstances put forward by the Council as the grounds for its decision are self evidently not exceptional circumstances of such a nature as to justify the decision taken and make no allowance for the Commission's decision on that scheme. |
2. |
In support of its action for annulment, the Commission raises four pleas in law:
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(1) 2009/983/EU, OJ L 338, p. 93