Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:194
Date: 1999-04-22
Language of the case: Spanish
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Beef and veal;Fruit and vegetables;European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF);Milk products;Oils and fats
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded;Action for annulment - successful
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — EAGGF — Clearance of accounts — Disallowance of expenditure 
arising from irregularities in the application of the Community rules — Disputed by the 
Member State concerned — Burden of proof 
(Council Regulation No 729/70, Art. 8) 
2. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — EAGGF financing — Principles — 
Expenditure must be in conformity with the Community rules — Member States under 
an obligation to monitor compliance 
(EC Treaty, Art. 5 (now Art. 10 EC); Council Regulation No 729/70, Art. 8(1)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-240/97 
1. Where the Commission refuses to 
charge certain expenditure to the 
EAGGF, on the ground that it was 
incurred as a result of breaches of 
Community law imputable to a Mem­
ber State, it is for that State to show 
that the conditions for obtaining the 
financing in question are fulfilled. That 
also applies where the Commission 
considers that the Member State has 
not discharged its obligation to check 
the various operations properly and to 
recover the refunds and aid improperly 
received by the beneficiaries. 
2. Article 8(1) of Regulation No 729/70, 
which constitutes a specific expression 
in the agricultural area of the obliga­
tions imposed on Member States by 
Article 5 of the Treaty (now Article 10 
EC), defines the principles according to 
which the Community and the Member 
States must ensure the implementation 
of Community decisions on agricul­
tural intervention financed by the 
EAGGF and combat fraud and irregu­
larities in relation to those operations. 
It imposes on the Member States the 
general obligation to take the measures 
necessary to satisfy themselves that the 
transactions financed by the EAGGF 
are actually carried out and are execu­
ted correctly, even if the specific Com­
munity act does not expressly provide 
for the adoption of particular super­
visory measures, particularly when 
there is evidence such as to give rise 
to serious suspicions that a prohibition 
laid down by the Community act in 
question has been circumvented. 
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