Order — ECLI:EU:T:2001:124
Date: 2001-04-25
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
Concepts: Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Ireland

Summary of the Order 
Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual 
concern to them — Commission decision refusing to recognise as chargeable to the 
EAGGF aid unlawfully granted by the national authorities — Action by a recipient of the 
aid — Inadmissible 
(Art. 230, fourth para., EC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-244/00 
An economic operator is not directly con­
cerned for the purposes of the fourth 
paragraph of Article 230 EC by a Commis­
sion decision, addressed to the Member 
States, excluding from Community finan­
cing, on the ground of failure to comply 
with the Community rules, various items of 
expenditure on the part of the national 
accredited paying agencies which were 
declared under the EAGGF, including those 
relating to the aid paid to that operator. 
That decision concerns only the financial 
relations between the EAGGF and the 
Member States, since no provision of that 
decision requires the national bodies con­
cerned to recover the sums indicated from 
their recipients. The proper execution of 
the decision requires only that the Member 
State concerned refund to the EAGGF the 
sums corresponding to the expenditure 
excluded from Community financing. 
In those circumstances, reimbursement 
of the Community aid paid to that 
operator for the financial years con­
cerned would be the direct conse­
quence, not of that decision, but of 
the action which would be taken for 
that purpose by the competent author­
ities on the basis of their national 
legislation in order to fulfil obligations 
under the Community rules on the 
subject. In that regard, it cannot be 
excluded that particular circumstances 
may lead the national authorities con­
cerned to decide not to claim repay­
ment of the aid granted from the 
recipient and themselves to bear the 
burden of reimbursing to the EAGGF 
the sums which they had wrongly 
considered themselves authorised to 
pay. 
(see paras 45, 47-48) 
II - 1276