Case C-564/10

Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung

v

Pfeifer & Langen KG

(Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht)

‛Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 — Protection of the European Union’s financial interests — Articles 3 and 4 — Administrative measures — Recovery of wrongly obtained advantages — Default and compensatory interest due under national law — Application of the limitation rules in Regulation No 2988/95 to the recovery of default interest — Start of the limitation period — Concept of suspension — Concept of interruption’

Summary of the Judgment

European Union’s own resources — Regulation on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests — Proceedings relating to irregularities — Limitation period

(Council Regulation No 2988/95, Art. 3)

Article 3 of Regulation No 2988/95 on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests must be interpreted as meaning that the limitation period that it lays down for the principal claim, relating to the recovery of an advantage wrongly received from the European Union budget, does not apply to the recovery of interest arising from that claim, when that interest is not due under European Union law, but exclusively under an obligation of national law.

While the recovery of an advantage wrongly received from the European Union budget is subject to the limitation rules laid down by Article 3 of that regulation, it is not however apparent either from the wording of that provision or from the scheme of the regulation that those rules are intended to govern the recovery of interest where the recovery of that interest is required not by sectoral rules but by national law.

However, having regard to the incidental nature of the claim for interest, it cannot be recovered when, under Article 3 of Regulation No 2988/95 or a sectoral European Union rule, the principal claim, that is to say the advantage wrongly received from the European Union budget, is itself statute-barred.

Moreover, since, under Article 325 TFEU, Member States are required to take the same measures to counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Union as they take to counter fraud affecting their own financial interests, they are required, when there is no European Union legislation and when their national law provides for the collection of interest when recovering advantages of the same type wrongly received from their own budget, to collect interest in the same way when recovering advantages wrongly received from the European Union budget, in particular when the sums collected as interest, the recovery of which is required by national law, are ultimately refunded to the European Union budget.

(see paras 50-53, operative part)

Case C-564/10

Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung

v

Pfeifer & Langen KG

(Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht)

‛Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 — Protection of the European Union’s financial interests — Articles 3 and 4 — Administrative measures — Recovery of wrongly obtained advantages — Default and compensatory interest due under national law — Application of the limitation rules in Regulation No 2988/95 to the recovery of default interest — Start of the limitation period — Concept of suspension — Concept of interruption’

Summary of the Judgment

European Union’s own resources — Regulation on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests — Proceedings relating to irregularities — Limitation period

(Council Regulation No 2988/95, Art. 3)

Article 3 of Regulation No 2988/95 on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests must be interpreted as meaning that the limitation period that it lays down for the principal claim, relating to the recovery of an advantage wrongly received from the European Union budget, does not apply to the recovery of interest arising from that claim, when that interest is not due under European Union law, but exclusively under an obligation of national law.

While the recovery of an advantage wrongly received from the European Union budget is subject to the limitation rules laid down by Article 3 of that regulation, it is not however apparent either from the wording of that provision or from the scheme of the regulation that those rules are intended to govern the recovery of interest where the recovery of that interest is required not by sectoral rules but by national law.

However, having regard to the incidental nature of the claim for interest, it cannot be recovered when, under Article 3 of Regulation No 2988/95 or a sectoral European Union rule, the principal claim, that is to say the advantage wrongly received from the European Union budget, is itself statute-barred.

Moreover, since, under Article 325 TFEU, Member States are required to take the same measures to counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Union as they take to counter fraud affecting their own financial interests, they are required, when there is no European Union legislation and when their national law provides for the collection of interest when recovering advantages of the same type wrongly received from their own budget, to collect interest in the same way when recovering advantages wrongly received from the European Union budget, in particular when the sums collected as interest, the recovery of which is required by national law, are ultimately refunded to the European Union budget.

(see paras 50-53, operative part)