Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Agriculture ° Common agricultural policy ° Financing by the EAGGF ° Principles ° Recovery of sums paid contrary to the Community rules and post-clearance recovery of uncollected import duties ° Obligation on the Member States to take the necessary individual decisions ° Power of the Commission to adopt binding measures against the traders concerned ° None

(EC Treaty, Art. 209a; Council Regulations Nos 729/70, 1697/79 and 595/91)

2. Actions for annulment of measures ° Measures against which actions may be brought ° Definition ° Measures producing binding legal effects ° Communication addressed by the Commission to the authorities of a Member State, requesting them to recover uncollected sums or sums unduly paid under the common agricultural policy

(EC Treaty, Art. 173)

Summary

1. As regards both the recovery of aid unduly paid under the common agricultural policy and the post-clearance recovery of uncollected import duties, governed by Regulations Nos 729/70 and 1697/79 respectively, it is for the Member States to implement the Community rules and to take the necessary individual decisions regarding the traders concerned, in accordance with the rules and procedures laid down in national legislation and subject to the limits imposed by Community law.

Moreover, whilst it is true that the procedures for cooperation between the Commission' s staff and national bodies with a view to intensifying the campaign against irregularities were specified, in the light of the experience acquired, by Regulation No 595/91, that regulation did not modify the system of supervision established by Regulation No 729/70, within the framework of which the Commission exercises only a supplementary function. Regulation No 595/91 has not conferred on the Commission any power whatever to adopt binding measures against traders in order to prevent and take action against irregularities or negligence in the financing of the common agricultural policy. It has merely strengthened the Commission' s powers to initiate action and the information-gathering and supervisory resources at its disposal in that field.

Lastly, it is quite clear from Article 209a of the Treaty that it is for the Member States to combat fraud which is prejudicial to the financial interests of the Community.

2. Only a measure whose legal effects are binding on the applicant and are capable of affecting his interests constitutes an act or decision which may be the subject of an action for annulment under Article 173 of the Treaty. Those requirements are not met where a communication is sent by the Commission to the authorities of a Member State, following an inquiry in which it has participated, requesting them to undertake the recovery, first, of certain aid which was granted to an undertaking under the system established by a common organization of the agricultural markets and which the Commission considers illegal and, second, of certain import duties which the undertaking was liable to pay.

Only measures adopted by the national authorities responsible for applying the Community rules and which are binding on the undertaking concerned are capable of directly affecting the legal situation of the undertaking.