Case T-501/15: Action brought on 31 August 2015 — Netherlands v Commission
Date: 2015-08-31
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: EAFRD, EAGF, Netherlands, aid to agriculture, closing of accounts, common agricultural policy, evaluation method, principle of legal certainty, rights of the defence








C_2015346EN.01003501.xml










19.10.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 346/35





Action brought on 31 August 2015 — Netherlands v Commission
(Case T-501/15)
(2015/C 346/40)
Language of the case: Dutch

Parties


Applicant: Kingdom of the Netherlands (represented by: M. Bulterman, B. Koopman and H. Stergiou, acting as Agents)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






—


annul the contested decision






—


in so far as it relates to the financial correction concerning the sanctioning system deemed by the European Commission to be too lenient in the amount of EUR 336 064,53 (2009), EUR 403 863,66 (2010) and EUR 230 786,49 (2011);










—


in so far as it relates to the financial correction that is applied in connection with the partial control for 3 SMRs in 2009 (EUR 1 597 182 EUR 15,53 and EUR 358,20), 4 RBEs in 2010 (EUR 1 630 540,68 and EUR 6 520,50) and 4 RBEs in 2011 (EUR 1 631 326,51) in so far as it concerns the European Commission’s finding that the Netherlands has breached SMR8; and














—


order the European Commission to pay the costs of the proceedings.





Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant seeks the partial annulment of Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/1119 of 22 June 2015 excluding from European Union financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (notified under document C(2015) 4076) (OJ 2015 L 182, p. 39).
In support of the action, the applicant relies on two pleas in law.






1.


First plea in law, alleging infringement of Article 24 of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 and Article 71 of Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 (1) by finding, contrary to those provisions, that the Netherlands sanctioning system is too lenient.










2.


Second plea in law, alleging infringement of Articles 3, 4 and 5 of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 (2) by finding, contrary to those provisions and in breach of the principle of legal certainty, that the Netherlands carried out a partial control for statutory management requirement 8 (‘SMR’) as set out in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 73/2009. The applicant submits that the Commission wrongly considers the Netherlands sanctioning system not to meet all the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 (3) and of Articles 3, 4 and 5 of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009.






(1)  Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 of 19 January 2009 establishing common rules for direct support schemes for farmers under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 247/2006, (EC) No 378/2007 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 (OJ 2009 L 30, p. 16).

(2)  Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 of 30 November 2009 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 as regards cross-compliance, modulation and the integrated administration and control system, under the direct support schemes for farmers provided for that Regulation, as well as for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 as regards cross-compliance under the support scheme provided for the wine sector (OJ 2009 L 316, p. 65).

(3)  Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 of 17 December 2003 establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC (OJ 2004 L 5, p. 8).