Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2008:328
Date: 2008-09-10
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
Concepts: Conditions subject to which expenditure is borne by the EAGGF
Procedure: Action for annulment - successful
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment Agriculture – EAGGF – Clearance of accounts – Support for restructuring and conversion in the wine sector (Council Regulation No 1258/1999, Art. 7(4) and No 1493/1999, Art. 13; Commission Regulation No 1227/2000, Art. 13) Community legislation, more specifically Article 13 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 of 31 May 2000 laying down detailed rules for the application of Regulation N 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine as regards production potential, expressly states that Member States have competence to lay down provisions governing the precise scope and rate of the support to grant, in particular those providing for the payment of flat-rate amounts, the maximum levels of support per hectare and the adjustment of the support on the basis of objective criteria. Moreover, as the Community legislation does not define ‘eligible area’, there is no legal basis to prohibit a Member State from including headland, that is, the strips of land between and at the end of the rows necessary for vineyard machinery to pass and turn, in the reference areas for the purpose of determining the payments. That being so, the national system of awarding support for the restructuring and conversion of vineyards has created no real risk of exceeding the Community financing threshold within the meaning of Article 13 of Regulation No 1493/1999. First, the costs taken into account by the Member State concerned for the purpose of establishing the amounts to pay to wine-growers are real, the respective data having been collected by regional farming organisations. Second, only systematic costs are included in calculating the flat-rate, thereby excluding all ad hoc costs incurred by the wine-growers, and the flat-rates are set so as to guarantee that the highest rate of support awarded does not exceed 50% of the lowest cost of a planting. Consequently, by removing from Community financing expenditure incurred pursuant to Community rules, the Commission has infringed Article 7(4) of Regulation No 1258/1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy. (see paras 55-57, 71-72, 81-82)