Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Procedure — Application initiating proceedings — Procedural requirements — Statement of the subject-matter of the proceedings — Summary of the pleas in law relied upon — (Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 38(1)(c))

2. Agriculture — EAGGF — Clearance of accounts — Disallowance of expenditure arising from irregularities in the application of the Community rules — Not possible to establish conclusive factual data except by impartial checks — Conditions under which other evidence may be allowed

3. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Cereals — Durum wheat — System of securities — Conditions governing release of the security — All the primary requirements must be fulfilled — Possibility of derogating explicitly and on special grounds from that principle — (Commission Regulations No 2220/85, Art. 21, and No 2668/94, Art. 11(2), second para., and (4))

Summary

1. It is clear from Article 38(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, and from the case-law relating to that provision, that an application must state the subject-matter of the proceedings and a summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based, and that that statement must be sufficiently clear and precise to enable the defendant to prepare its defence and the Court to rule on the application. It is therefore necessary for the basic legal and factual particulars on which a case is based to be indicated coherently and intelligibly in the application itself.

see paras 6, 40, 48

2. In the context of the clearance of the accounts of the Member States in respect of expenditure financed by the EAGGF, conclusive factual data cannot normally be established except by impartial checks carried out by independent persons such as the CCIA. It is only where the Member State concerned succeeds in showing that those findings are incorrect that other evidence may be allowed.

see para. 14

3. Since Article 21 of Regulation No 2220/85 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of securities for agricultural products provides generally that release of the security is conditional upon all the primary requirements being fulfilled, the specific regulation, Regulation No 2668/94, authorising the Italian intervention agency to put up for sale by tender 148 000 tonnes of durum wheat for export in the form of durum wheat meal to Algeria, cannot derogate from that principle unless it does so explicitly and on special grounds. That is not the case as regards the second subparagraph of Article 11(2) of Regulation No 2668/85 in its original version, pursuant to which release of the security is conditional only on arrival of the goods in Algeria, since Article 11(4) of that regulation provides that payment of the purchase price is the primary requirement and thus makes a clear reference to Regulation No 2220/85.

see para. 30