1.

First plea in law, alleging the inappropriate exercise by the Commission of its power to exclude sums from EU financing on the basis of Article 52 of Regulation No 1306/2013. (2) The Commission conducted the conformity clearance procedure relating to the claim years 2017 and 2018 in a manner that was inappropriate: The Commission erred in considering that there was an irregularity concerning administrative checks regarding greening payments having an impact on the Funds. Even assuming that there was such an irregularity, the conduct of that EU institution — in particular the extremely vague wording of the findings and the coincidence in time between the 2017 and 2018 enquiries — made it impossible to submit certain relevant impact calculations while observing the deadline laid down in the third subparagraph of Article 34(3) of Regulation No 908/2014. (3) In that context, the Commission unduly refused, in breach of Article 34(6) of that regulation, to analyse the data and calculations provided by the Romanian authorities through the request for conciliation (of 5 February 2020) relating to the 2018 enquiry. Under no circumstances should the Commission have applied flat-rate corrections of 5 %. The conduct of that EU institution, in the context of the 2018 enquiry, with regard to the irregularities concerning the updating of the LPIS (4) – quality and correct identification of reference land parcels in the LPIS-GIS (5) — in particular the fact that the essential aspects were clarified by its final position (on 20 December 2019) relating to the 2017 enquiry — made it impossible to establish the extent of those irregularities and to submit certain relevant impact calculations while observing the deadline laid down in the third subparagraph of Article 34(3) of Regulation No 908/2014. In that context, the Commission unduly refused, in breach of Article 34(6) of that regulation, to analyse the data and calculations provided by the Romanian authorities through the request for conciliation (of 5 February 2020) relating to the 2018 enquiry. The conduct of that EU institution, in the context of the 2018 enquiry, with regard to the irregularity concerning the maximum area eligible for the area-related support measures financed by the EAFRD, consisting of imposing its own calculation method, cannot serve as a substitute for analysis of the data and calculations provided by the Romanian authorities on 10 June 2019. What is more, that conduct made it impossible for the Romanian authorities to identify, by the deadline laid down in the third subparagraph of Article 34(3) of Regulation No 908/2014, the necessary adjustments to be made to the data and calculations provided. In that context, the Commission unduly refused, in breach of Article 34(6) of that regulation, to analyse the data and calculations provided by the Romanian authorities through the request for conciliation (of 5 February 2020) relating to the 2018 enquiry. That institution wrongly considered that there was an irregularity as regards the performance of a sufficient number of on-the-spot checks in connection with the greening payment scheme, incorrectly referring to the control data and statistics communicated under Article 9(1) of Regulation No 809/2014. (6) Even assuming that there was such an irregularity, the Commission should not have applied flat-rate corrections of 5 %.