Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2003:70
Date: 2003-02-06
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Ireland

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — EAGGF — Clearance of accounts — Regulations Nos 729/70 and 
1258/99 — Temporal scope — Commission decision disallowing certain expenditure 
adopted on the basis of a regulation since repealed — Lawful notwithstanding the 
absence of transitional provisions 
(Council Regulations Nos 729/70 and 1258/99, Arts 16(1) and 20) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-339/00 
2. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — EAGGF financing — Aid intended to 
compensate for a loss of income from agriculture arising from afforestation — Only 
private persons eligible — Meaning of private-law legal person — Company wholly 
owned and controlled by the State — Excluded 
(Council Regulation No 2080/92, Art. 2(2)(a) and (b)) 
3. Member States — Obligations — Obligation to cooperate in good faith with the 
Community institutions — Reciprocity 
(Art. 10 EC) 
4. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — EAGGF financing — Principles — 
Commission's obligation to disallow irregular expenditure — Irregularities tolerated 
on grounds of fairness or remaining undetected in previous financial years — Right of 
the recipient of the aid to rely on that fact by virtue of the principle of the protection of 
legitimate expectations — None 
1. As undesirable as the absence of tran­
sitional provisions making it possible 
to identify clearly the relationship 
between Regulations Nos 729/70 and 
1258/1999 on the financing of the 
common agricultural policy and 
thereby to ensure that legislation is 
sufficiently comprehensible may be, the 
repeal of Regulation No 729/70 
declared in Article 16(1) of Regulation 
No 1258/1999 did not limit the Com­
mission's obligation to monitor the 
conformity with the Community rules 
of expenditure effected by the Member 
States up to 31 December 1999, the 
last day prior to commencement of the 
application of the second regulation to 
that expenditure. The purpose of 
A r t i c l e 16(1 ) of R e g u l a t i o n 
No 1258/1999, read in conjunction 
with Article 20 of that regulation, is 
not to interrupt the application of the 
rules on the financing of the common 
agricultural policy, thereby creating a 
legal vacuum undermining the effec­
tiveness of Regulations Nos 729/70 
and 1258/1999, but to recast the 
applicable provisions with a view to 
ensuring clarity. 
Accordingly, Commission Decision 
2000/449 excluding from Community 
financing certain expenditure incurred 
by the Member States under the Guar­
antee Section of the European Agricul­
tural Guidance and Guarantee Fund 
(EAGGF), in so far as it excludes from 
Community financing expenditure 
incurred by Ireland in respect of affor­
estation aid for the financial years 1997 
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IRELAND v COMMISSION 
and 1998, was properly adopted on the 
basis of Regulation No 729/70. 
(see paras 35-39) 
2. The expression 'any other private law, 
n a t u r a l or l ega l p e r s o n ' in 
Art ic le 2(2)(b) of Regu la t ion 
No 2082/92 instituting a Community 
aid scheme for forestry measures in 
agriculture and relating to aid intended 
to compensate for a loss of income 
from agriculture arising from affores­
tation covers only private persons, in 
contrast to the expression 'any natural 
or legal person' in Article 2(2)(a), 
which concerns aid intended to cover 
afforestation costs and the costs of 
maintaining the afforested land, which 
covers both private persons and non-
private persons such as legal persons 
owned and controlled by the State. It 
follows that legal persons owned and 
controlled by the State are eligible for 
aid to cover the costs of afforestation 
and maintenance of forests in the same 
way as any other natural or legal 
person but that they are not, however, 
eligible for aid to compensate for a loss 
of income from agriculture. 
In that connection, a company such as 
Coillte Teoranta (the Forestry Board), 
wholly owned by the Irish State, is not 
a private-law legal person for the pur­
poses of Article 2(2)(b) of Regulation 
No 2080/92. Neither the company's 
obligation to manage its affairs on a 
commercial basis nor the fact that the 
State does not, in practice, intervene in 
the company's management can prevail 
over the finding that the company is 
wholly owned and controlled by the 
State and that the State can therefore 
intervene. Accordingly, such an entity, 
as a public undertaking, is not eligible 
to receive aid to compensate for a loss 
of income arising from afforestation 
provided for by that provision. 
(see paras 59-61, 63) 
3. Under Article 10 of the Treaty, the 
duty to cooperate in good faith which 
governs relations between the Member 
States and the institutions entails an 
obligation on the Member States to 
take all the measures necessary to 
guarantee the application and effective­
ness of Community law and imposes 
on Member States and the Community 
institutions mutual duties to cooperate 
in good faith. 
(see para. 71) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-339/00 
4. The fact that the Commission did not 
call into question the aid granted, 
before a specific date, by a Member 
State under the European Agricultural 
Guidance and Guarantee Fund 
(EAGGF) cannot lead that State to 
believe that the grant of such aid will 
never be called into question in the 
future. Where the Commission has 
tolerated irregularities on grounds of 
fairness, the Member State concerned 
does not acquire any right to demand 
that the same position be taken with 
regard to irregularities committed in 
the following financial year by virtue of 
the principle of legal certainty or the 
principle of the protection of legitimate 
expectations. This must apply a fortiori 
in cases in which the Commission had 
not detected the type of irregularities in 
question during the preceding financial 
years. 
(see para. 81) 
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