Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:205
Date: 2002-03-21
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Agricultural structures
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

SUMMARY — CASE C-304/00 
Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Integrated administration and control 
system for certain aid schemes — Area-linked aid for arable crops and set-aside — 
Unintentional error in the declaration of area not made as a result of serious 
negligence — Reduction of the aid wrongly granted for the years before discovery of 
the error, not covered by a limitation period — Requirements of protection of the 
financial interests of the Community) 
(Council Regulation No 2988/95, Arts (1(2), 2(2) and 3(1); Commission Regulation 
No 3887/92, Art. 9(2)) 
2. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Integrated administration and control 
system for certain aid schemes — Area-linked aid for arable crops and set-aside — 
Declaration of area made incorrectly, but on the basis ofinformation recognised by the 
competent authority — Reduction of the amount of the aid — Not permissible 
(Commission Regulation No 3887/92, Art. 9(2)) 
3. Preliminary rulings — Jurisdiction of the Court — Identification of the relevant 
points of Community law 
(Art. 234 EC) 
1. On a proper construction of the first 
and second paragraphs of Article 9(2) 
of Regulation No 3887/92 laying 
down detailed rules for applying the 
integrated administration and control 
system for certain Community aid 
schemes, where the competent auth­
ority discovers that an applicant for 
'area' aid has made an incorrect dec­
laration, neither intentionally nor as 
the result of serious negligence, which 
has entailed overdeclaration of the area 
eligible for aid and that the same 
mistake was made in the years prior 
to that in which the mistake was 
discovered, thus leading to overdeclar­
ation of the area eligible for aid in each 
of those years, that authority is 
required, subject to observance of the 
limitation periods laid down in 
Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2988/95 
on the protection of the European 
Communities' financial interests, to 
reduce the area actually determined in 
order to calculate the aid payable in 
respect of the previous years. Limiting 
the reduction to the year in which the 
error was revealed would run counter 
to the objectives set out in Regulation 
No 2988/95, applicable in this area, 
since the reduction constitutes an 
administrative penalty, in respect of 
an irregularity within the meaning of 
Article 1(2), for the purposes of 
Article 2(2). 
(see paras 46-47, 64, operative part) 
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STRAWSON AND GAGG & SONS 
2. In accordance with the fourth para­
graph of Article 9(2) of Regulation 
No 3887/92, the reductions in respect 
of 'area' aid, where it is found that the 
area declared in an area aid application 
is greater than the area actually deter­
mined, are not to be applied if the 
farmer who has submitted an inaccur­
ate declaration and received aid for an 
area overdeclared, shows that his deter­
mination of the area was accurately 
based on information recognised by the 
competent authority. 
(see para. 65, operative part) 
3. In connection with the procedure under 
Article 234 EC, the Court can provide 
the national court with an interpre­
tation of Community law which may 
assist it in deciding the case in the main 
proceedings. The Court may therefore 
deem it necessary to consider provi­
sions of Community law to which the 
national court has not referred in the 
text of its question. 
(see paras 57-58) 
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