COMMISSION DECISION of 21 December 1994 on the clearance of the accounts presented by the Member States in respect of the expenditure for 1991 of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) Guarantee Section (94/871/EC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (1), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2048/88 (2), and in particular Article 5 (2) thereof,
After consulting the Fund Committee,
Whereas, pursuant to Article 5 (2) (b) of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70, the Commission, on the basis of the annual accounts presented by the Member States, clears the accounts of the authorities and bodies referred to in Article 4 of that Regulation;
Whereas the Member States have transmitted to the Commission the documents required to clear the accounts for 1991; whereas on the basis of Article 5 (2) (a) of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 the 1991 financial year began on 16 October 1990 and ended on 15 October 1991;
Whereas the Commission has carried out the checks provided for in Article 9 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70;
Whereas Article 8 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1723/72 of 26 July 1972 on making up accounts for the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guarantee Section (3), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 295/88 (4), provides that the decision to clear the accounts must include the determination of the amount of expenditure incurred in each Member State during the financial year in question recognized as chargeable to the Guarantee Section of the Fund; whereas Article 102 of the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 (5), as last amended by Regulation (ECSC, EC, Euratom) No 2730/94 (6), provides that the outcome of the clearance decision, that is to say, any discrepancy between the total expenditure booked to the accounts for a financial year pursuant to Articles 100 and 101 and the total expenditure recognized by the Commission when clearing the accounts, is to be booked under a single Article, as additional expenditure or a reduction in expenditure;
Whereas, pursuant to Articles 2 and 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70, only refunds on exports to third countries and intervention to stabilize agricultural markets, respectively granted and undertaken according to Community rules within the framework of the common organization of the agricultural markets, may be financed; whereas the inspections carried out show that part of the expenditure declared by the Member States does not meet those conditions and therefore must be disallowed; whereas the amounts declared by each other of the Member States concerned, those recognized as chargeable to the EAGGF Guarantee Section and the differences between the two amounts together with the differences between the expenditure recognized as chargeable to the EAGGF Guarantee Section and that charged in respect of the year are shown in the Annex to this Decision;
Whereas the expenditure relating to performance of the operations provided for in Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1582/91 (7) declared by Italy amounting to Lit 3 162 202 599 is not covered by this Decision, given that it is covered by a separate decision, Commission Decision 94/281/EC of 29 April 1994 (8); whereas this amount has, therefore, been deducted from the expenditure declared by the Member State in respect of the year under consideration;
Whereas the expenditure declared by Greece, Spain, France and Italy for private storage of wine amounting to Dra 132 358 648, Pta 636 164 384, FF 38 898 417 and Lit 8 203 376 912 respectively and the expenditure declared by Denmark and Ireland for public storage of beef amounting to Dkr 13 497 909 and £Irl 9 613 206 respectively are not covered by this Decision, since further examination of the files is required; whereas those amounts have, therefore, been deducted from the expenditure declared by those Member States for the financial year concerned and will be cleared at a later date;
Whereas Commission Decision 93/659/EC (9) does not cover the expenditure relating to implementation of the milk improvement programme declared by Greece amounting to Dra 343 019 260; whereas the Commission has examined this expenditure on the basis of the information presented by the Member State concerned; whereas it should therefore be cleared by means of this Decision;
Whereas expenditure disallowed under this Decision with respect to the 1991 financial year for Italy includes Lit 11 347 399 140 in respect of export refunds in the tobacco sector; whereas the same applies to France in respect of FF 775 902 for levies in the cereals sector, Italy in respect of Lit 6 417 202 385 for production aid for olive oil and Greece in respect of Dra 16 735 309 160 for production aid for cotton; whereas, in view of the failure to comply with certain Community provisions, the corrected amounts should be charged to those Member States pursuant to this Decision; whereas, however, the special circumstances of these cases justify re-examination by the Commission of the disallowance during the present clearance in the light of the findings and verifications currently under way; whereas this Decision is nevertheless immediately applicable;
Whereas expenditure not recognized by the present Decision includes for Italy an amount of Lit 488 800 000 000 in respect of the financial year 1991, for Spain an amount of Pta 31 020 000 000 and for Greece an amount of Dra 1 592 000 000 relating to levies in the milk sector; whereas the non-recognition of this expenditure is the result of the Commission's and the Council's joint conclusions reached on 21 October 1994 concerning the consequences of these three Member States' failure to apply the milk quota regime; whereas under the present Decision the amounts of the unrecognized expenditure must be taken over by the Member States; whereas the Commission nevertheless reserves the possibility to reexamine the non-recognition of expenditure made under this clearance of accounts if one or other aspect of the joint conclusions of 21 October 1994 is not implemented, particularly as regards the withdrawal of appeals pending before the Court of Justice in respect of the clearance decisions in the milk sector; whereas the present Decision is nevertheless immediately applicable;
Whereas Commission Decision 93/524/EEC (10) fixed, subject to revision, a financial correction of Pta 4 736 985 247 for Spain in respect of additional levies in the milk sector; whereas the additional verifications carried out by the Commission, concerning the practical implementation of the milk quota scheme, revealed no information casting doubt on the justification for the financial correction; whereas, therefore, this correction should now become definitive;
Whereas the Court of Justice, by its judgment of 10 November 1993 in Case C-48/91 Netherlands v. Commission, annulled the accounts clearance decision for 1988 in respect of the Netherlands insofar as it had adopted a financial correction of HFl 708 540 relating to co-responsibility levies in the cereals sector; whereas, as a result, and in accordance with Article 176 of the Treaty, the abovementioned amount must be charged in this clearance of accounts to the Community budget for 1988;
Whereas the Court of Justice, by its judgement of 9 August 1994 in Case C/413/92 Germany v. Commission, annulled the accounts clearance decision for 1989 in respect of Germany insofar as it had adopted a financial correction of DM 24 365 relating to aid for the production of casein and caseinates; whereas, as a result, and in accordance with Article 176 of the Treaty, the abovementioned amount must be charged in this clearance of accounts to the Community budget for 1989;
Whereas, in respect of Germany and the Netherlands, the inquiries regarding export refunds in the beef sector are now closed; whereas this Decision lays down the further action to be taken with regard to these cases;
Whereas Article 8 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 provides that the financial consequence arising from irregularities or negligence are not to be borne by the Community if they are the result of irregularities or negligence attributable to administrative authorities or other bodies of the Member States; whereas some of those financial consequences which cannot be borne by the Community budget should be included within the scope of this Decision;
Whereas this Decision is without prejudice to any financial consequences which may be determined in any subsequent clearance of accounts in respect of national aid or infringements for which the procedures started under Articles 93 and 169 of the Treaty are now being implemented or were terminated after 30 June 1994;
Whereas this Decision is without prejudice to any financial consequences determined by the Commission, during a subsequent accounts clearance procedure from current investigations under way at the time of this Decision, from irregularities within the meaning of Article 8 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 or from judgments of the Court of Justice in cases now pending and relating to matters covered by this Decision;
Whereas, in their joint conclusions of 21 October 1994, the Commission and the Council agreed that the additional financial burden for the Member States concerned represented by the increase in the financial corrections for the years 1989 to 1991 would be recovered in four equal annual instalments from 1995 to 1998; whereas the size of the amounts to be recovered from certain of those Member States justifies the collection by the Commission of the corrections for 1991 in three equal monthly instalments,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
The Member States' accounts concerning expenditure financed by the EAGGF Guarantee Section in respect of 1991 are hereby cleared as indicated in the Annex.
Article 2
The amounts arising under point 3 of the Annex are to be taken into account as part of the expenditure referred to in Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2776/88 (11) for the months given in the following table.
"(in national currency) (12)(13)(14) Belgium 105 131 314 - Denmark 44 400 114,86 - Germany - 228 106 708, Greece - 30 598 880 825 1 592 000 Spain - 40 645 071 494 31 020 000 France 84 413 308,92 - Ireland 5 961 919,11 - Italy - 984 166 798 609 488 800 000 Luxembourg 1 515 335 - Netherlands 1 527 260,86 - Portugal 188 430 521 - United Kingdom 147 822,81
Article 3
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Brussels, 21 December 1994.