Case T-281/06: Action brought on 6 October 2006 — Spain v Commission
Date: 2006-12-02
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: EAGGF Guarantee Section, EU financing, European Commission, Spain, action for annulment (EU), marketing, tropical fruit

C 294/62

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

2.12.2006

Action brought on 4 October 2006 — Italian Republic v
Commission

Form of order sought

(Case T-280/06)

(2006/C 294/123)

Language of the case: Italian

Parties

Applicant: Italian Republic (represented by: P. Gentili, Avvocato
dello Stato)

The Court is asked to:

— annul Commission Decision 2006/554/EC of 27 July 2006
excluding from Community financing certain expenditure
incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section
of the EAGGF in so far as it relates to the subject-matter of
this action;

— order the Commission to pay the costs.

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Pleas in law and main arguments

Form of order sought

— annul memorandum No 06626 of 24 July 2006 of the
European Commission — Directorate General Regional
Policy — Programmes and projects in Cyprus, Greece,
Hungary, Italy, Malta and the Netherlands — concerning
payments of the Commission which differ from the sum
requested. Ref. ROP Sicily Programme (No CCI 1999 IT 61
PO 011);

— annul all

Commission of
costs.

related and prior measures, and order

the
the European Communities to pay the

Pleas in law and main arguments

The pleas in law and main arguments are similar to those relied
on in Case T-345/04 Italian Republic v Commission (1).

(1) OJ C 262 of 23.10.04, p. 55.

Action brought on 6 October 2006 — Spain v Commis-
sion

(Case T-281/06)

(2006/C 294/124)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: M. Muñoz Pérez)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

By the contested decision,
the Commission excluded from
Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the
Kingdom of Spain in respect of compensatory aid for bananas.

The appropriate correction was made for the alleged existence
of weaknesses in quality controls and in the determination of
marketed quantities of bananas.

In support of its claims, the applicant State argues that the
Commission:

— infringed Articles 2 and 3 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70
and Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999. It states in
that respect that the Spanish authorities correctly applied
the provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 1858/93 in force in
the years to which the financial correction at issue refer as
they were unable to require producers to provide sales
invoices for bananas and took into account at the time of
calculating the aid a document, the SAD (single administra-
tive document), as evidence of the marketing of bananas. In
addition, the Commission has not countered the Spanish
authorities' statement to the effect that the quantities of
bananas which received aid were in fact marketed,
if
account is taken of the excess weight which is included in
the packaging and other relevant factors.

So far as concerns quality controls, the applicant State
asserts that, in accordance with Article 7 and Annex 1 II.B
to Regulation (EC) No 2257/94, the quality inspections
observed during the Commission's monitoring visit corre-
sponded with those which the experts of the Ministry of
Agriculture of the Autonomous Community of the Canaries
carry out on producers' organisations to check that their
controls are effective, the basic objective of which was not
to ensure that the marketed bananas complied with the
appropriate quality requirements;

— was in breach of

the principle of proportionality by
imposing a pro-rata correction, based exclusively on the
assessment of a very low level of risk for the EAGGF, rather
than adjusting the financial correction so as to take more
account of the hypothetical damage suffered by the EAGGF.