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)

2. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Fruit and vegetables - Producers' organisations - EAGGF financing - Recognition of organisations by national authorities - Lack of sufficient evidence as regards the duration and effectiveness of activities - Refusal, on pain of withdrawal of recognition by the national authority

(Council Regulation No 1035/72, Art. 13(2))

3. Agriculture - Common agricultural policy - EAGGF financing - Principles - Commission's obligation to disallow irregular expenditure - Irregularities tolerated in one financial year on grounds of fairness - Strict application of the rules in the following year - Breach of the principles of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations - No such breach

4. Agriculture - EAGGF - Clearance of accounts - Regulations Nos 729/70, 1287/95 and 1663/95 - Temporal scope

(Council Regulations No 729/70, Art. 5(2)(c), No 1287/95, Art. 2(2), and No 1663/95, Art. 8(1) and 10)

Summary

1. A Member State whose controls carried out in the context of the application of the rules for the functioning of the guarantee section of the EAGGF have been considered by the Commission to be non-existent or insufficient cannot rebut the Commission's findings without supporting its own allegations by evidence of a reliable and operational supervisory system.

( see para. 13 )

2. Under Article 13(2) of Regulation No 1035/72 on the common organisation of the market in fruit and vegetables, Member States may grant recognition to the producers' organisations concerned only on condition that there is sufficient evidence as regards the duration and effectiveness of their activities, in particular the tasks for the purpose of which they were constituted, and that, from the date of recognition, they keep specific accounts in respect of the activities for which recognition was sought. It follows that a Member State must refuse recognition to, or withdraw recognition from, any organisation of producers which, for example, does not have adequate technical facilities for presenting and marketing the products concerned.

( see para. 53 )

3. Where the Commission did not carry out the correction called for in respect of a previous year, but tolerated the irregularities on grounds of fairness, the Member State does not acquire any right to demand that the same position be taken with regard to the irregularities with respect to the following financial year by virtue of the principle of legal certainty or the principle of protection of legitimate expectations.

( see para. 56 )

4. Regulation No 1287/95, which inserted the fifth sub-subparagraph of Article 5(2)(c) in Regulation No 729/70 on the financing of the common agricultural policy, providing that a refusal to finance may not involve expenditure effected prior to 24 months preceding the Commission's written communication of the results of those checks to the Member State concerned, applies in principle, by virtue of the second subparagraph of Article 2(1), only to the financial year beginning on 16 October 1995. However, in order to give a useful sense to Article 2(2) of Regulation No 1287/95, which provides that refusal to grant financing as referred to in Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70, as amended, may not relate to expenditure claimed against a financial year prior to 16 October 1992, but without prejudice to clearance decisions in respect of the financial years preceding the entry into force of Regulation No 1287/95, the correction procedure must be taken to apply to financial years subsequent to 16 October 1992 which were not the subject of a clearance decision prior to the entry into force of that regulation. It follows that, as far as the clearance of accounts for 1995 is concerned, the Commission was required to implement the procedure referred to in Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70, as amended. On the other hand, it follows from Article 10 of Regulation No 1663/95 that Article 8(1) of that regulation, which specifies, inter alia, the content of the written communication which the Commission is to send to the Member State concerned pursuant to the fifth sub-subparagraph of Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70, as amended, is applicable only from the financial year beginning 16 October 1995, namely the 1996 financial year.

( see paras 78-82 )