Keywords

Summary



Keywords

Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Aid for the restructuring and conversion of vineyards – Fixing of the definitive financial allocations made to Member States

(Council Regulation No 1493/1999, Art. 14(1); Commission Regulation No 1227/2000, Arts 16(1) and (2), and 17(1))

Summary

There can be no doubt that the wording of Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1227/2000 of 31 May 2000 laying down detailed rules for the application of Regulation No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine, as regards production potential, makes the time-limit provided for by that article binding. That interpretation is confirmed both by the general scheme of Regulation No 1227/2000 and by the purpose of Article 16(1) of that regulation.

The binding nature of that time-limit is borne out by Article 16(2) of Regulation No 1227/2000, which seeks precisely to encourage Member States to comply with their obligation to provide a statement under Article 16(1) of that regulation.

Nothing in the wording of Article 17(1) of Regulation No 1227/2000 indicates that the Commission is required to base its decision on actual data and therefore to take account of corrections provided by Member States after the time-limit laid down in Article 16(1) of that regulation has passed. On the contrary it follows from Article 17(4) of that regulation that the Commission is required to base the decision, in respect of the adoption of the decision fixing the definitive financial allocations, not on the actual total area, but only on that notified to it within the time-limit laid down in Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1227/2000.

It is apparent from the objective of the statement provided for in Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1227/2000 that the date of 10 July referred to in that provision is intended to enable the Commission to adopt, in good time, the decision fixing the definitive financial allocations to Member States, and thus the Commission cannot be required to rely, for the purpose of adopting that decision, on amended data communicated after that date. Only a strict interpretation of the time-limit laid down in Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1227/2000 makes it possible to ensure that financial allocations provided to Member States, which are initially granted only provisionally under Article 14(1) of Regulation No 1493/1999, can be adapted in good time by the Commission in the light of actual expenditure. In order to enable Member States to make the final payments relating to the expenditure declared under Article 16(1) of Regulation No 1227/2000 before the end of the current financial year and to obtain reimbursement thereof by the Commission before the end of the budgetary year, under the budget headings available for that financial year, it is necessary that the decision fixing the definitive financial allocations to the Member States for the financial year concerned be adopted before the end of that year, that is to say, before 15 October. In order that the Commission should be in a position to adopt and publish the decision fixing those definitive financial allocations before that date, it is important, given the procedural constraints on it, for it to have information relating to all of the Member States not later than 10 July of the year in question.

(see paras 46-47, 48, 54, 57, 59-60, 63, 65-66)