Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Agriculture — EAGGF — Clearance of accounts — Compensatory aid for banana producers — Disallowance of expenditure arising from irregularities in the application of the Community rules — Financial adjustment provided for in Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70 — Temporal scope — Date to be taken into account when calculating the time-limit of 24 months — (Council Regulations No 729/70, Art. 5(2)(c), and No 1287/95)

2. 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 — Shared by the Commission and the Member State

3. Acts of the institutions — Statement of reasons — Obligation — Scope — Decision relating to the clearance of accounts in respect of expenditure financed by the EAGGF — (Art. 253 EC)

Summary

1. The provisions of Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70 on the financing of the common agricultural policy, as amended by Regulation No 1287/95, permit the Commission to exclude from Community financing expenditure not in compliance with Community rules that has been effected during the 24 months before the Commission communicated the results of its inspections in writing to the Member State concerned. That adjustment procedure, inserted in Regulation No 729/70 by Regulation No 1287/95, must be taken to apply to financial years after 16 October 1992 which were not the subject of a clearance decision prior to the entry into force of Regulation No 1287/95. In a case where aid was expended in the banana sector, the decisive date as regards application of the time-limit laid down in Article 5(2)(c) is that on which the definitive amount of the compensatory aid is fixed and the balance paid. Even if they can appear in the decision clearing the accounts, the amounts paid during the preceding year only constitute advances subject to the lodging of a security, and they are therefore not relevant as regards determining the date on which the aid is expended, for the purposes of applying the period of 24 months.

see paras 36-38, 41-43

2. As regards the financing of the common agricultural policy by the EAGGF, in order to prove an infringement of the rules on the common organisation of the agricultural markets, the Commission is not required to demonstrate exhaustively that the checks carried out by the national authorities are inadequate, or that the data submitted by them are incorrect, but to adduce evidence of serious and reasonable doubt on its part regarding the checks or data. The reason for this mitigation of the burden of proof on the Commission is that it is the Member State which is best placed to collect and verify the data required for the clearance of EAGGF accounts and, consequently, it is for that State to adduce the most detailed and comprehensive evidence that its inspections or figures are accurate and, if appropriate, that the Commission's statements are incorrect.

see para. 68

3. In the particular context of the preparation of decisions on the clearance of accounts, the grounds for a decision must be considered adequate if the Member State to which the decision is addressed was closely involved in the decision-making process and was aware of the reasons why the Commission considered that it was not required to charge the sum in dispute to the EAGGF.

see para. 83