Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2008:521
Date: 2008-09-25
Language of the case: German
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Financial provisions;Own resources
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 1. Own resources of the European Communities – Regulation on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests – Proceedings relating to irregularities – Limitation period (Council Regulation No 2988/95, Arts 1(2) and 3(1), first para.) 2. Own resources of the European Communities – Regulation on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests – Proceedings relating to irregularities – Limitation period (Council Regulation No 2988/95, Art. 3(1), first para. and third para.) 3. Own resources of the European Communities – Regulation on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests – Proceedings relating to irregularities – Limitation period (Council Regulation No 2988/95, Art. 3(3)) 1. The first subparagraph of Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2988/95 on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests, which fixes, as far as proceedings are concerned, a four-year limitation period which runs from the time when the irregularity was committed, is applicable to administrative measures such as the recovery of export refunds wrongly received by the exporter as a result of irregularities it committed. (see paras 21, 23, operative part 1) 2. As regards the treatment to be given to advantages wrongly received from the Community budget as a result of irregularities committed before Regulation No 2988/95 on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests entered into force, it must be stated that, by the adoption of Article 3(1) of that regulation and without prejudice to Article 3(3) thereof, the Community legislature thereby laid down a general rule on limitation by which it voluntarily reduced to four years the period during which the authorities of the Member States, acting in the name and on behalf of the Community budget, should recover or should have recovered such wrongly received advantages. As regards debts which arose subject to a national rule on limitation, the recovery of which is not yet time‑barred, the entry into force of Regulation No 2988/95 has the effect that, pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 3(1) thereof, the recovery of such debts must as a rule be time-barred within a period of four years running from the date on which the irregularities were committed. Accordingly, pursuant to that provision, the repayment of any sum wrongly received by an operator as a result of an irregularity predating the entry into force of Regulation No 2988/95 must, as a rule, be regarded as time-barred in the absence of any suspensory act adopted in the four years following the commission of the irregularities, subject none the less to the possibility retained by the Member States, under Article 3(3) of that regulation, of providing for longer limitation periods. The limitation period provided for in the first subparagraph of Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2988/95 therefore applies to irregularities committed before the entry into force of that regulation and starts to run from the date on which the irregularity at issue was committed. (see paras 29, 31-34, operative part 2) 3. The longer limitation periods which Member States retain the possibility of applying under Article 3(3) of Regulation No 2988/95 on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests may result from general provisions of law predating the adoption of that regulation. Article 3(3) of Regulation No 2988/95 cannot be interpreted as meaning that the Member States must, in the context of that provision, provide for those longer limitation periods in specific and/or sectoral rules. (see paras 46-47, operative part 3)